LIV Golf players send signed letter "urging" OWGR for points inclusion

All of the 48 players that competed at LIV Golf Chicago last week have sent a signed letter to Peter Dawson, the chairman of the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) "urging" him to grant them ranking points. 

Current non-playing captain Bubba Watson and first reserve Shergo Al Kurdi also signed the letter, making it 50 players in total. 

As it stands, LIV Golf tournaments do not receive any OWGR points and therefore their players are rapidly sliding down the rankings on a weekly basis. 

Cameron Smith has already slipped from second to third in the world, despite winning on LIV Golf last week, and former World No.1 Dustin Johnson now finds himself down at 23rd in the world. 

The story is similar for all the other players that have switched allegiance from the PGA Tour to LIV Golf this season. 

More: Greg Norman believes Cameron Smith and Dustin Johnson are the best players in the world right now

According to the Washington Post last week, it is understood that a decision may not be reached until 2024. 

But it would appear frustrations are growing with those on the LIV Golf Tour right now as many of their players fear they will miss out on teeing up in the four majors in 2023. 

Should LIV Golf tournaments receive OWGR points?

— GolfMagic.com (@GolfMagic) September 20, 2022

Here is the signed letter that was sent to the OWGR on September 16, 2022: 

Peter Dawson, CBE

Chairman, Governing Board

Official World Golf Rankings

European Tour Building

Wentworth Drive

Virginia Water

Surrey, GU254LX, England

Dear Mr. Dawson,

Your stewardship has ensured the Official World Golf Ranking status as one of the most respected institutions in sports. As the athletes who are ranked, we depend on OWGR not just to qualify for the most important events, including the Majors and Olympics, but to tell us where we stand among our peers. Trust in the OWGR has been widespread and well-deserved.

To maintain trust, we urge you – as one of the true statesmen of sports – to act appropriately to include, on a retroactive basis, the results of LIV Golf events in OWGR’s ranking calculations. An OWGR without LIV would be incomplete and inaccurate, the equivalent of leaving the Big 10 or the SEC out of the U.S. college football rankings, or leaving Belgium, Argentina, and England out of the FIFA rankings.

Some 23 tours are integrated into the OWGR universe, and LIV has earned its place among them. Four LIV golfers have held the number-one position on the OWGR, and one is currently number-two. LIV’s roster includes 21 of the last 51 winners of the four Majors. The level of competition at the average LIV event is at least equal to that at the average PGA Tour event. We know because we’ve played in both.

Every week that passes without the inclusion of LIV athletes undermines the historical value of OWGR. As time goes by, LIV golfers automatically decline in the rankings. For example, Dustin Johnson was ranked 13th on OWGR shortly before he announced he would play in LIV tournaments. He now ranks 22nd – despite finishing eighth, third, second, and first in the first four LIV events. Over Labor Day weekend in Boston, he defeated 15 golfers who had finished either first or second in the four Majors, including the Champion Golfer of the Year for 2022. For the rankings to be accurate, DJ deserves to move up, not down.

The case for LIV’s inclusion is strong, but we have concerns that members of your Governing Board are conflicted and are keeping the OWGR from acting as it should. Four of the eight members have connections to the PGA Tour, which unfortunately views LIV Golf as an antagonist. Other members of the Board have made unfairly harsh remarks about LIV, with one of them calling the organization “not credible.”

The current overwrought environment makes your own judgment crucial. In your athletic, business and golf management career you have won a stellar reputation for impartiality and integrity. Your work at the R&A and the OWGR shows you know how to combine tradition and innovation.

The OWGR’s mission, as stated on your website, “is to administer and publish, on a weekly basis, a transparent, credible, and accurate Ranking based on the relative performances of players.”

How can such a system possibly exclude players competing at such high levels against some of the strongest fields of the year for large purses, at such high-profile events?

We understand that LIV Golf formally applied for admission to the OWGR in mid-July. We hope the story we read today about the decision being slow walked so LIV golfers will slide down and to harm LIV is not accurate. We call on you to render a positive decision quickly – for the benefit of the integrity of the rankings, the game and all of us who love the sport.

After all, 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.

Sincerely,

Abraham Ancer

Anirban Lahiri

Bernd Wiesberger

Branden Grace

Brooks Koepka

Bryson DeChambeau

Bubba Watson

Cameron Smith

Cameron Tringale

Carlos Ortiz

Charl Schwartzel

Charles Howell III

Chase Koepka

David Puig

Dustin Johnson

Eugenio Chacarra

Graeme McDowell

Harold Varner III

Henrik Stenson

Hudson Swafford

Ian Poulter

James Piot

Jason Kokrak

Jediah Morgan

Joaquin Niemann

Kevin Na

Laurie Canter

Lee Westwood

Louis Oosthuizen

Marc Leishman

Martin Kaymer

Matt Jones

Matthew Wolff

Pat Perez

Patrick Reed

Paul Casey

Peter Uihlein

Phachara Khongwatmai

Phil Mickelson

Richard Bland

Sadom Kaewkanjana

Sam Horsfield

Scott Vincent

Sergio Garcia

Shaun Norris

Shergo Al Kurdi

Sihwan Kim

Talor Gooch

Turk Pettit

Wade Ormsby

Next Page: LIV Golf's Talor Gooch hits back at Shane Lowry's 'one for the good guys' comment