LIV Golf, which was not pleased at all with the news, that the Official World Golf Ranking rejected its application for points after more than an year of deliberation, didn’t hold its response back.
The upstart circuit, led by Greg Norman with financial backing from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, released a long statement on Tuesday afternoon condemning the rankings system. They said it had lost its clarity and trust by not rewarding LIV players. The statement did not address the reasons stated in the original AP article as to why the application to receive world ranking points had been rejected.
The full statement is:
The sole purpose of OWGR is to rank players from around the world. The communication today makes it clear that they can’t deliver on this objective.
Players have traditionally been subject to one world ranking for qualifying for Major Championships and the largest events. This also applies to corporate sponsorship contract values. Unfair rankings that do not fairly represent all golfers, regardless of where they play, deprive fans, players, and all golf stakeholders of an objective basis for recognizing the best performances in the world. This also deprives some of the most prestigious tournaments from having the best possible field.
The professional golf industry is without a global or true scoring system. Fans or players will not benefit from a lack of clarity or trust as long as best performances aren’t recognized.
LIV will strive to ensure that fans, sponsors, and broadcasters have an objective and independent ranking system, and can enjoy the sport of golf to its fullest.
Associated Press reported that the OWGR rejected the request because it was unable compare the 48 player, 54 hole, shotgun start events, with no-cut to the other 24 tours in its world ranking wing. LIV Golf’s qualifying and relegation systems were also deemed to be a concern.
Peter Dawson, Chairman of the OWGR Board, told the AP, “We aren’t at war with them.” This decision to not make them eligible for the OWGR is not political. This is purely technical. The LIV players should be ranked. “They’re not playing in a way that allows them to be ranked fairly with the 24 tours, and the thousands of players who compete on each.”
Dawson continued, “Dustin Johnson and Sergio Garcia should of course be included in the rankings.” We need to figure out a way to do that. I hope LIV will find a way to solve the problem – not their format, which can be solved by a mathematical formula. But qualification and relegation.”
