LIV golfers ship letter to OWGR chairman asking for retroactive inclusion of ends in rankings

Every of the 48 gamers who competed in final week’s LIV Golf occasion exterior Chicago have signed a letter despatched to the chairman of the Official World Golf Rating, asking that it retroactively embrace LIV Golf ends in its rankings.

The letter was despatched to OWGR chairman Peter Dawson on Friday. The letter was additionally signed by non-playing captain Bubba Watson and reserves.

“To take care of belief, we urge you — as one of many true statesmen of sports activities — to behave appropriately to incorporate, on a retroactive foundation, the outcomes of LIV Golf occasions in OWGR’s rating calculations,” the gamers wrote within the letter. “An OWGR with out LIV could be incomplete and inaccurate, the equal of leaving the Large 10 or the SEC out of the U.S. faculty soccer rankings, or leaving Belgium, Argentina, and England out of the FIFA rankings.”

LIV gamers haven’t acquired factors for his or her finishes within the first 5 tournaments staged by the brand new circuit, which is being fronted by two-time Open winner Greg Norman and financed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Funding Fund.

“Some 23 excursions are built-in into the OWGR universe, and LIV has earned its place amongst them,” the letter mentioned. “4 LIV golfers have held the number-one place on the OWGR, and one is at the moment number-two (Cameron Smith is at the moment third).

“LIV’s roster contains 21 of the final 51 winners of the 4 Majors. The extent of competitors on the common LIV occasion is at the least equal to that on the common PGA Tour occasion. We all know as a result of we have performed in each. Each week that passes with out the inclusion of LIV athletes undermines the historic worth of OWGR.”

The letter famous that two-time main champion Dustin Johnson has fallen from thirteenth to twenty second (he’s now twenty third) since becoming a member of LIV Golf, regardless of ending eighth, third, second and first in his first 4 occasions.

Different LIV golfers even have slipped within the OWGR, together with Brooks Koepka (twenty ninth), Louis Oosthuizen (thirty third) and Talor Gooch (thirty sixth).

The OWGR standings are used to find out exemptions on the 4 main championships. The OWGR board started contemplating LIV Golf’s software throughout a gathering on the one hundred and fiftieth Open at St. Andrews in July. The board mentioned LIV Golf utilized for inclusion on July 6.

OWGR board members embrace PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, DP World Tour CEO Keith Pelley, USGA CEO Mike Whan, R&A chief government Martin Slumbers, PGA of America government director Seth Waugh, Augusta Nationwide Golf Membership government director Will Jones and Keith Waters, who represents the Worldwide Federation of PGA Excursions.

“The case for LIV’s inclusion is powerful, however we have now considerations that members of your Governing Board are conflicted and are protecting the OWGR from performing because it ought to,” LIV Golf gamers wrote within the letter. “4 of the eight members have connections to the PGA Tour, which sadly views LIV Golf as an antagonist. Different members of the Board have made unfairly harsh remarks about LIV, with certainly one of them calling the group ‘not credible.’

“The present overwrought surroundings makes your personal judgment essential. In your athletic, enterprise and golf administration profession you may have received a stellar fame for impartiality and integrity. Your work on the R&A and the OWGR reveals you understand how to mix custom and innovation.”

In an earlier letter to LIV gamers, Norman famous that there are 14 standards for reaching eligibility for OWGR recognition and that LIV Golf did not immediately meet all of them. One of many standards contains not having a minimize after 36 holes; LIV Golf tournaments are 54 holes with no cuts.

However different tournaments, together with the BMW Championship, Tour Championship, Hero World Problem and World Golf Championships, do not have cuts and are nonetheless awarded OWGR factors.

“By any measure, it could be unsuitable to disclaim factors to LIV gamers in gentle of the OWGR granting different tour gamers factors in related, if not much less aggressive, circumstances,” Norman wrote.

Different standards that LIV Golf did not immediately fulfill included tournaments having a median area of at the least 75 gamers (LIV has 48 gamers on 12 four-man groups); a tour holding an annual open qualifying faculty earlier than the beginning of every season; a structured alternative for at the least 5 gamers to progress to the total member tour that’s proposing its software (in LIV’s case, the Asian Tour); and a tour demonstrating that it has complied with OWGR pointers for a interval of 1 yr.