LIV Golf's Quest for Legitimacy Rests on Its World Ranking Application—and It's Complicated
What are the legal ramifications of the Official World Golf Rankings still reviewing the LIV Golf application and sharing nothing with LIV or the Asian Tour, the technical applicant?
LIV, which is no longer an outsider in professional golf, is now focusing on the small group in London that ultimately controls the rankings and, if dispassionately reviewed, the World Ranking is a more important issue for LIV Golf than the PGA Tour antitrust issue, which is being adjudicated in a federal court in Northern California.
Receiving world ranking points for its events means LIV Golf can compete on a level playing field against the other tours, which ultimately means more than if the PGA Tour is anti-competitive.
Cameron Smith is No. 3 in the Official World Golf Ranking. He will have a hard time staying there without LIV Golf getting OWGR status.
Jamie Sabau/USA Today
In a move to attempt to force the issue, 50 players from LIV Golf signed a letter on Sept. 16 to Peter Dawson, Chairman of the OWGR, asking for the ranking group to move quicker on its application.
While legal jeopardy was not discussed or implied by the letter, LIV is more than willing to fund any legal action it feels necessary to establish its new tour in the golf ecosystem.
With the generation of the letter, finally, the LIV Golf discussions have gotten around to a serious debate on the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR) and who and why ranking points are granted.
A relatively obscure organization with a handful of staff based outside of London at the headquarters of the European Tour, the OWGR is a byproduct of IMG founder Mark McCormick dating to the 1986 Masters.
Its original objective, in conjunction with the R&A, was to create a vehicle to determine exemptions into the British Open.
Today it’s the engine that drives almost every aspect of professional golf, from who plays in majors to bonus payments from sponsors and manufacturers to players.
Its objective, according to its website, is "to devise, maintain, review, update, administer and promote the recognition of a system that fairly ranks the relative performances of male professional golfers participating in the leading golf tournaments throughout the world."
By following that objective, the OWGR is the only accepted ranking system in professional golf. And, like nearly everything in professional golf, it is also under siege.
In early July, the Asian Tour filed an application on behalf of LIV Golf to join the rankings organization.
More than two months later, the OWGR has not provided a response to the application and LIV, which has moved quickly to establish a presence in professional golf, decided to draft the letter to Dawson.
Perfunctory in form, LIV suggests that the OWGR is “slow walking” the application and suggests that the integrity of the rankings is in jeopardy.
According to a source close to how the OWGR functions, the application process is generally a one-to-two-year process, where applications are denied routinely, without prejudice, and then resubmitted with changes to applications as outlined by the OWGR behest.
While most applications are eventually approved, some applications of smaller tours and organizations have been permanently denied by the OWGR.
The OWGR process is one of little form or substance and mostly subjective in nature.
None of the criteria for a submission is outlined on its website nor is anything regarding its process provided to the public.
According to sources and even players with knowledge of the OWGR process, fulfilling all the criteria is not necessary for eventual entrance into the OWGR.
Nor is one criterion more important that another.
LIV Golf's Application
When LIV Golf, through the Asian Tour, submitted its application in July, the application outlined 10 criteria:
1. A Tour must embrace non-discriminatory practices and not exclude any players based on nationality, race, religion, sexual orientation, or political beliefs.
2. A Tour’s application to OWGR must be proposed by one of the six Full Member Tours of the International Federation of PGA Tours.
3. There must be a clearly structured opportunity for players from the Tour to progress to the Full Member Tour that is proposing the application, by way of the availability to the Tour of at least five annual playing exemptions.
4. A Tour must hold an annual open Qualifying School before the start of each season and/or an open pre-qualifying event for each tournament.
5. A Tour must have a players’ committee and appropriate rules and regulations for its members including local rules and conditions of competition for all tournaments sanctioned by it.
6. A Tour must be governed by the Rules of Golf as established by the R&A and the USGA and shall comply with Article 5.2 of the Constitution of the International Golf Federation.
7. Every tournament on a Tour must be contested over a scheduled minimum of 54 holes with a cut after 36 holes and/or in accordance with OWGR eligible formats.
8. Tournaments on a Tour must average fields of at least 75 players over the course of each season.
9. A Tour must demonstrate that it has complied with the above guidelines for a period of at least one year immediately prior to being admitted to the OWGR system and must continue to comply with such guidelines following inclusion in the OWGR system.
10. A Tour which is included in the OWGR System will be subject to a probation period of at least three years following its inclusion and will continue to be monitored and analyzed by OWGR after such probation period has ended, as a matter of course.
According to sources, however, the criteria are only guidelines, subject to be amended anytime, and the decision to approve a tour to the OWGR is at the sole discretion of the governing board. And that board may not admit a tour despite it fully complying with the criteria.
On Aug. 17, LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman told his players in a letter that the LIV Golf application was reviewed by the OWGR Technical Committee at the Old Course during the British Open.
Representatives with the OWGR would not confirm if that review took place, nor would they confirm the next Technical Committee meeting that could further review the LIV Golf application.
Norman also outlined that the Strength of Field (SoF) for the first three events under the OWGR calculations exceeded both PGA Tour and DP World Tour events the same week.
The LIV Golf Invitational London had a SoF of 96 and the DP World Tour Volvo Car Scandinavian Mixed the same week had a SoF of 18.
LIV Golf Invitational Portland had a SoF of 128 while the PGA Tour’s John Deere SoF was 53 and LIV Golf Bedminster was SoF 140. The DP World Tour’s Hero Open played that same week had a SoF of 17.
In the same letter, Norman argued that LIV Golf fits some of what appears to be the more important criteria
LIV Golf events not having a cut after 36 holes. Many leading limited-field events on the eligible golf tours do not include cuts after 36 holes, including the PGA Tour's Tour Championship, the DP World Tour Championship, World Golf Championships stroke-play events and the Hero World Challenge. Players competing in these events are routinely awarded OWGR points. For example, the Hero World Challenge in 2021, with a 20-player field and no cut, provided 48 points to the winner from a SoF rating of 296. Similarly, the 2021 TOUR Championship had 29 players competing for four rounds with no cut and received OWGR points.
Tournaments must average fields of at least 75 players. Between the LIV Golf Invitational Series and International Series (which will be co-sanctioned between the Asian Tour and LIV Golf beginning in 2023), LIV events will average 88 players, more than enough to satisfy this criterion.
A Tour must hold an annual open qualifying school before the start of each season. LIV Golf will host a LIV Promotions event, offering players the chance to earn their spot. Various categories will be open to amateurs, professionals and players currently competing on other tours within the OWGR framework.
There must be a structured opportunity for (at least five) players from the Tour to progress to the full member tour that is proposing its application. Although LIV Golf will offer a playing spot to the International Series winner each season, it will also provide its top five players from the end of season with a full Asian Tour card for the following season, which fulfil this criterion.
While the OWGR is working within its guidelines, the LIV Golf application will likely force the group to move quicker than they have in the past.
Potential legal ramifications for the OWGR and funding of any potential legal issues must be paid by the PGA Tour and DP World Tour, as well as the lesser member tours, which may force a more expedited review.
But even an answer that is negative may force litigation, unless both sides can come together with a solution.
Of course, this is putting the cart before the horse. The ball is in the OWGR board's court, and they will need to address the question posed by the LIV Golf players letter: “The fans deserve rankings that are inclusive and accurate. Failure to include 48 of the world’s best golfers would mean the fans are being denied what they deserve.”