The Wait Continues on LIV Golf's Quest for Legitimacy Through World Ranking Points
As LIV Golf awaits a decision on whether its league will receive world ranking points when the new season begins in February, commissioner Greg Norman believes the OWGR was never equipped to deal with an upstart entity such as the one that just completed its first year.
Norman, who is also the CEO of LIV Golf, said in a conference call with reporters Wednesday that LIV’s applying—first in July, then in October as part of the developmental MENA Tour—remains important to the overall viability of the league and the world rankings system.
“I understand they have a process,’’ Norman said. “I get all that. (But) the OWGR was never prepared for a new entity like LIV Golf. You have to expect the unexpected sometimes. When somebody comes along with an incredible business model that is working and as we’ve shown, you’ve got to have that flexibility and adaptability to allow a new entity coming along.
“OWGR was never, ever ready for that type of approach."
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The OWGR board is led by chairman Peter Dawson, the former CEO of the R&A who has spoken to Norman about the bid but otherwise released no information other than that it has been received.
The organization also has PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, DP World Tour CEO Keith Pelley and representatives from the four major championships on its board of directors.
Norman’s suggestion that it was never meant to deal with something like LIV Golf has merit. The organization has mostly dealt with certifying lower-level and developmental tours and overseeing their ability to get started properly before awarding world ranking points.
The OWGR has 14 guidelines for rankings approval, but according to its own handbook, those guidelines doesn’t guarantee approval; they also can be dismissed and still offer approval.
Given that ambiguity, LIV Golf believes it deserves points, simply because the world ranking system is not accurate if you are not including players such as Cam Smith, Joaquin Niemann and Dustin Johnson, among others.
“It's definitely a hurdle," Norman said. “We recognize that. I don’t personally think it’s right. From a golf perspective, I don’t think it’s right that you have 13 (now 11) of the top 50 in the world who are with LIV, and therefore the OWGR are missing 13 of the top 50."
Cho Minn Thant, the commissioner of the Asian Tour—whose International Series is supported by LIV Golf and is a pathway to LIV events—is a member of the OWGR’s technical committee.
In a recent interview with Sports Illustrated, Cho said that the technical committee had yet to discuss the LIV application.
It is believed that in the future that it will take up discussion of the MENA Tour bid; LIV partnered with the developmental Tour in the Middle East and Northern Africa to have all of its members be full MENA Tour members and believes that is a faster path.
Cho said earlier that the LIV Golf bid is different than others. “This is almost like the opposite of every other tour that applies," he said. “Our most recent ones were the Mexican Tour, the Thailand Tour, the Indonesian Tour. They’ve all been feeder tours. So this is almost reversed. With LIV, there are about 40 of their 48 players who are ranked. For any other tour, the majority of players are not ranked."
Despite the ambiguity in the OWGR process, there are clearly some things LIV Golf can do to enhance its position. While 54 holes is not a grave issue, nor is 48 players—events get points reductions based on those aspects—having a 36-hole cut would seem an easy starting point.
Given LIV’s format, even those who miss the cut can still compete as part of the team format in the final round.
The pathway to LIV Golf is also limited. There are spots from the International Series, and allowing three or four to qualify directly from those tournaments also seems an easy fix.
Pressed on those points, Norman did not address any specific criteria.
“We’ve discussed all that internally," he said. “We do our internal analysis to determine what are the next steps we need to do. Until we hear from the technical committee, we’re not prepared to say more about what we will do."
It is not unprecedented for the OWGR to respond to tours seeking points and ask them to made adjustments.
“We try and work out every single scenario that can come back to us,” Norman said. “We’ve got very good answers if they ask the question."
For now, LIV Golf will apparently wait for those questions to be asked.