LIV Golf’s bid to have its gamers earn rating factors has been unanimously rejected by the Official World Golf Rating (OWGR) as a consequence of issues concerning the Saudi Arabia-backed circuit’s format.
OWGR Chairman Peter Dawson stated in a letter despatched on Tuesday to LIV Golf’s Chief Government Greg Norman and Chief Working Officer Gary Davidson, that “at the moment” LIV Golf is not going to be recognised as an Eligible Golf Tour within the OWGR system.
LIV Golf, whose participant roster consists of main champions Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka and Cameron Smith, stated the OWGR’s determination means the organisation can not ship on its goal to rank the most effective gamers on this planet.
“Skilled golf is now with no true or world scoring and rating system,” LIV Golf stated in a press release. “There is no such thing as a profit for followers or gamers from the dearth of belief or readability so long as the most effective participant performances usually are not acknowledged.”
Dawson stated the Board Committee felt LIV Golf’s event format – 54-hole, no-cut occasions for 48 gamers – was a difficulty however added that it was one which was able to being managed by an “acceptable mathematical method.”
The board didn’t make a willpower what that adjustment may be and won’t achieve this whereas there are different “unresolved deficiencies” which render efficiency comparisons with gamers competing in current OWGR Tour occasions extraordinarily troublesome.
The larger concern, in response to the letter, is the restricted entry for gamers to hitch LIV Golf which, barring harm, options the identical 48 gamers all season.
The letter additionally revealed that LIV knowledgeable the OWGR in July that 14 gamers will likely be invited again subsequent season no matter their efficiency, greater than double the quantity that LIV officers initially advised the OWGR.
“Merely put, the Board Committee doesn’t imagine it’s equitable to hundreds of gamers who attempt each day to get begins in OWGR Eligible Tournaments to have a tour function on this mostly-closed style,” Dawson wrote.
RESUBMIT APPLICATION
Dawson additionally stated the Committee stays involved concerning the implications of conducting particular person and crew competitions concurrently, and singled out actions and feedback attributed to Sebastian Munoz throughout an April event.
Brooks Koepka led Munoz by a shot on the ultimate gap and each have been about 40 ft away for birdie. Koepka’s putt settled simply over 4 ft from the cup earlier than Munoz, needing a birdie to drive a playoff however whose crew led Koepka’s Smash unit by a stroke, lagged his putt to only inside 4 ft and made par.
“It’s bizarre, as a result of I knew we have been one stroke forward on the crew, so I couldn’t go further. I knew I couldn’t be too aggressive,” Munoz stated on the time. “He obtained the person, we obtained the crew. I name it a tie.”
LIV Golf utilized for recognition within the rankings, which play a key position in deciding entry into golf’s 4 majors, in July 2022 and its gamers have stated excluding them “undermines the historic worth” of the rating.
Critics say LIV Golf, bankrolled by Saudi Arabia’s Public Funding Fund, quantities to “sportswashing” by a nation making an attempt to enhance its picture amid criticism of its human rights report.
Dawson stated OWGR invitations LIV to resubmit its software ought to it make any modifications that influence the areas of non-conformance.
“The choice to respectfully decline LIV’s software at the moment it not meant to discourage your efforts to innovate in males’s skilled golf and/or trigger you to make adjustments you might not imagine to be in the most effective pursuits of your tour and occasions.”
In accordance with the OWGR web site, the rating factors breakdown is derived from every event’s whole subject score and factors are awarded to gamers who make the lower and full an occasion, topic to their ending place within the event.
Whereas golf’s 4 majors have allowed certified LIV Golf gamers to compete, those that earned exemption into the blue-riband occasions as a consequence of previous outcomes may at some point be neglected as they aren’t incomes world rating factors.