The LIV Golf League has withdrawn its software for recognition from the Official World Golf Rating, LIV Golf CEO and commissioner Greg Norman instructed gamers in a letter Tuesday.
The LIV Golf League, now in its third season, had been combating for OWGR accreditation since July 2022. World-ranking factors are used to find out exemptions and different invites into the 4 main championships by Augusta Nationwide Golf Membership, PGA of America, United States Golf Affiliation and The R&A.
“It’s now clear that one of the best ways ahead for LIV as a league and also you as LIV golfers shouldn’t be by the present rating system,” Norman wrote within the letter. “A decision which protects the accuracy, credibility, and integrity of the OWGR rankings now not exists. We’ve made huge efforts to combat for you and to make sure your accomplishments are acknowledged inside the present rating system. Sadly, the OWGR has proven little willingness to productively work with us.”
The OWGR denied LIV Golf’s software on Oct. 23. In a letter to Norman and LIV Golf COO Gary Davidson, OWGR chairman Peter Dawson mentioned the governing board had issues concerning the lack of turnover amongst gamers in LIV Golf and the restricted pathways for different gamers to affix. It additionally cited issues about a number of the workforce features of LIV Golf, which has gamers competing in particular person and workforce competitions concurrently over 54 holes.
The LIV Golf League made some changes to its format to permit 4 new gamers to affix the league this season by a promotions occasion and an computerized qualifying spot by the Order of Benefit within the Worldwide Collection on the Asian Tour. It wasn’t sufficient to fulfill the OWGR’s governing board.
“We aren’t at conflict with them,” Dawson instructed The Related Press in October. “This determination to not make them eligible shouldn’t be political. It’s solely technical. LIV gamers are self-evidently adequate to be ranked. They’re simply not enjoying in a format the place they are often ranked equitably with the opposite 24 excursions and 1000’s of gamers making an attempt to compete on them.”
Golfers have not obtained world-ranking factors for his or her finishes in LIV Golf League occasions the previous three seasons, inflicting a lot of them to plummet within the rankings.
Solely 4 LIV Golf League gamers are presently ranked within the prime 50 on the earth. Reigning Masters champion Jon Rahm, who jumped from the PGA Tour to the LIV Golf League in December, is ranked No. 3 on the earth. England’s Tyrrell Hatton, who joined Rahm’s workforce earlier than this season, is ranked seventeenth.
Former world No. 1 Brooks Koepka, who picked up his fifth main championship on the 2023 PGA Championship after tying for second on the Masters, is presently ranked thirtieth within the OWGR. Australia’s Cameron Smith, who received the 2022 Open Championship at St. Andrews in Scotland, has fallen from second to fiftieth on the earth since becoming a member of LIV in August 2022.
“The rankings are structured to penalize anybody who has not performed recurrently on an ‘Eligible Tour’ with the sector scores disproportionately rewarding play on the PGA Tour,” Norman wrote within the letter to LIV Golf gamers.
“Even when LIV Golf occasions have been instantly awarded factors, the OWGR system is designed such that it could be functionally not possible so that you can regain positions near the summit of the rating, the place so a lot of you have been previous to becoming a member of LIV, and deserve to stay based mostly in your efficiency.”
Different LIV Golf gamers have watched their world rankings fall much more sharply. Talor Gooch, a three-time winner within the LIV Golf League and the circuit’s particular person champion final season, has dropped from thirty fifth to 476th on the earth since becoming a member of LIV in June 2022. Two-time main champion Dustin Johnson has fallen from thirteenth within the OWGR to 266th after becoming a member of LIV Golf in Could 2022. Six-time world champion Phil Mickelson has dropped from thirty eighth to 147th since becoming a member of LIV in June 2022.
“I feel it’s nearly out of date now,” Smith mentioned in October. “We have some guys out right here who’re enjoying a number of the greatest golf on the earth they usually’re outdoors the highest 100, 200 on the earth. It is fairly ridiculous.”
Norman mentioned the LIV Golf League would work with the governing our bodies of the 4 main championships to get extra of its gamers in fields. Chile’s Joaquin Niemann, ranked 76th on the earth, obtained a particular invitation to compete within the Masters after he received the Australian Open on Dec. 3.
After selecting up his second LIV Golf League victory in Saudi Arabia on Sunday, Niemann mentioned he additionally obtained an invite from the PGA of America to compete within the PGA Championship in Could.
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