Greg Norman thinks LIV’s expertise ought to override any procedural issues relating to doling out World Ranking factors.
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Life, like Greg Norman’s argument for fast world rating factors, is all a matter of perspective.
From one perspective, LIV Golf is staging tournaments with a few of the most gifted golfers on the earth. They have main champions, former World No. 1s and a few of the most recognizable names and largest personalities within the sport. The indisputable fact that these professionals commonly compete in opposition to one another and even the winners are plummeting on the earth rankings reveals an apparent blind spot within the system. Continuing to disclaim them factors could be ridiculous!
From one other perspective, LIV is staging a brand-new match collection of restricted, closed-field occasions that fulfill solely a portion of the OWGR standards. Now they’re demanding prompt recognition and particular exemption from an in-depth, intensive overview course of — and now they’re thumbing their nostril at that course of by means of the weird takeover of a dormant mini-tour. Giving in to their calls for could be ridiculous!
You can see why issues have gotten heated.
So let’s boil it all the way down to the necessities. What is the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR), how can a brand new tour acquire its recognition and what are the boundaries for LIV to get there? Here are 10 questions — and solutions! — in regards to the mysterious course of.
1. Why do individuals care in regards to the OWGR?
For many years, a male golfer’s skilled standing has been represented by his world rating. It’s his resume, his VIP badge, his passport. It’s the way in which he will get in comparison with gamers who aren’t on his tour. More particularly, his world rating dictates whether or not or not he can play in a few of the greatest occasions on the calendar, together with the main championships.
That’s a major cause LIV golfers care in regards to the OWGR: They nonetheless need to play the majors. While LIV has demonstrated some curiosity from an rising fan base, golf careers and legacies are nonetheless outlined by efficiency in majors. Some LIV professionals are latest main winners and have exemptions into the most important championships (assume Bryson DeChambeau and Dustin Johnson, who gained the U.S. Open and Masters in 2020, Phil Mickelson, who gained the 2021 PGA and Cameron Smith, who gained this yr’s Open) however others are clinging to their rating as technique of qualification (assume Joaquin Niemann or Talor Gooch).
As a outcome, the OWGR’s ruling — and timing — is an enormous deal. If LIV is awarded factors, its members can extra simply go away the PGA Tour of their rearview mirror, understanding they’ll nonetheless be capable to qualify for the majors by means of robust play on LIV. Until then, they’re in limbo. That limbo has already contributed to lawsuits, to resentment, to dramatics. There’s prone to be extra of all the above.
2. What’s the push?
LIV CEO Greg Norman has made it clear he desires factors and he desires them now. LIV professionals underscored that time in a September letter to the OWGR board (extra on that shortly) and doubled down with a shocking end-around to the little-known MENA Tour this previous week (extra on that shortly, too).
But there’s a cause that is an pressing matter for LIV professionals. Because they’re suspended from the PGA Tour, they aren’t incomes factors there or on LIV. They nonetheless have some alternatives to earn factors — some are nonetheless certified for majors, whereas others have performed on the DP World Tour and Patrick Reed has been barnstorming varied world phases — however their rankings are plummeting nonetheless. This is doubly unhealthy information for LIV as a result of almost each member of their subject may have a decrease rating. So if LIV is awarded factors in a yr, say, these factors might be value mere pennies on the greenback as a result of the sector energy might be so significantly lowered. LIV members knew this threat once they made the bounce to LIV, however now they’re talking out within the hopes of an expedited course of.
“When they keep holding it back, they’re going to just keep playing a waiting game where we’re going to keep dropping down in the rankings to where our points won’t ever matter,” DeChambeau mentioned in Thailand this week. “That’s what they’re trying to accomplish, and I hope that people can see right through that rather than believe the lies that they’ve been told. From my perspective, I think we deserve points.”
3. Who made this factor, anyway?
Here’s the quick historical past of the OWGR: In the Sixties, pioneering sports activities agent Mark McCormack made his personal rating. He did this on his personal till 1986, when the OWGR was formally acknowledged in order that gamers splitting time between the European and PGA Tours might be extra precisely measured, even when they weren’t atop both cash record. McCormack’s company, IMG, owned the OWGR till 2004, when an organization known as OWGR Limited took over operation.
4. Who runs the OWGR?
There OWGR is ruled by a seven-person board of administrators. That governing board is chaired by Peter Dawson, the previous Chief Executive of the R&A, and is comprised of representatives from the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour, the International Federation of PGA Tours after which one rep from every of the our bodies that run the 4 majors. Here’s what that appears like:
GOVERNING BOARD
Chairman: Peter Dawson
Representing Augusta National Golf Club: Will Jones, Executive Director
Representing the DP World Tour: Keith Pelley, Chief Executive
Representing the PGA of America: Seth Waugh, Chief Executive Officer
Representing the PGA Tour: Jay Monahan, Commissioner
Representing the R&A: Martin Slumbers, Chief Executive
Representing the USGA: Mike Whan, Chief Executive Officer
Representing the International Federation of PGA Tours: Keith Waters
There’s additionally a 10-person Technical Committee, which we’ll get to in a second, however in the event you’re LIV and also you’re wanting on the above record, you won’t be significantly enthused. That board is a who’s-who of multinational figures in skilled golf, no less than a few whom have publicly said their objections to LIV’s strategy.
There has been no indication that the OWGR board has allowed private emotions about LIV to have an effect on the method. But if LIV is on the lookout for the OWGR to expedite the method and do its members a favor, this won’t be essentially the most sympathetic group.
5. What are OWGR standards?
Good query! The particular standards for a startup golf league making an attempt to affix the OWGR aren’t actually public (they declined a GOLF.com request for remark), and the extent to which excursions must observe the letter of the regulation is barely unclear. On prime of that, the aforementioned governing board can interpret the factors because it needs, change the principles because it sees match and determine no matter it desires. Still, there are some common necessities, which embrace:
-A “sponsor” tour, one of many six “Full Member” excursions, to suggest the brand new tour’s inclusion. In this case, the Asian Tour nominated LIV, primarily vouching for its legitimacy.
-An alternative for gamers from the brand new tour to achieve entry to the sponsoring tour. In this case, meaning LIV gamers will need to have an avenue to taking part in the Asian Tour. (They may have that chance.)
-An opportunity for golfers to qualify for the tour, whether or not by means of qualifying colleges, weekly qualifiers or each. The PGA Tour, for instance, has a Q-school that feeds to the Korn Ferry Tour, which feeds to the PGA Tour. The majority of its occasions even have Monday qualifiers the week of the occasion. LIV’s hand-picked groups and fields are at odds with this qualifying course of however they’ve launched plans that contain relegation and promotion that might fulfill this requirement.
-An common of no less than 75 gamers per match subject. That’s a problem for LIV, whose shotgun begin options 48 professionals. But they imagine they’ve in-built a workaround because of the Asian Tour’s International Series, which options 144-player fields and would pull up LIV’s common.
-Scheduled 72-hole tournaments with 36-hole cuts. Exceptions have been made for the 72-hole part for developmental excursions, together with the MENA Tour, which commonly performed 54-hole occasions. More on that in a second, however LIV’s 54 holes might or will not be a problem right here — and its lack of a reduce might give the board pause, too. LIV has identified that the PGA Tour has no-cut, limited-field occasions, just like the Tour Championship or the Sentry Tournament of Champions. That’s true, though the distinction is that gamers have certified for these occasions by means of their play on Tour.
-Following the Rules of Golf and following non-discriminatory practices in the direction of gamers.
One different necessary bit: A tour is meant to function for a yr underneath these necessities earlier than gaining approval. LIV says there have been exceptions to that rule, too — however that’s one other level of pressure as its gamers rankings proceed to fall.
6. How lengthy does the method take?
The quick reply? Roughly 12-18 months. Typically functions are reviewed by the governing board and by OWGR’s Technical Committee, a 10-person committee consisting of representatives from a few of golf’s most important governing our bodies. The committee then instructs the applicant on the standing of its proposal and what adjustments it would make to raised fulfill OWGR necessities.
The OWGR introduced it had acquired LIV’s software on July thirteenth, the Tuesday of the Open Championship.
“Examination of the application will now commence,” Peter Dawson wrote in a launch. The OWGR board met that week to start discussions round LIV’s inclusion.
7. What on earth is that this MENA Tour story?
Great query. Earlier this week, LIV introduced that it had fashioned a strategic alliance with the MENA (Middle Eastern and North African) Tour, a developmental feeder to the Asian Tour. LIV occasions at the moment are MENA occasions, and LIV professionals at the moment are MENA Tour professionals. Because MENA has been OWGR-sanctioned since 2016, Norman and LIV execs trumpeted the transfer as giving them a right away proper to OWGR factors.
It was laborious to right away inform whether or not the transfer was borne of aggression, desperation, technique, trolling or some mixture of the above. It wasn’t a sudden impulsive transfer — LIV’s plans with MENA had been within the works — but it surely actually signaled a insecurity within the official course of.
LIV did power a response from the OWGR, which declined to award factors to this week’s occasion in Bangkok or LIV’s subsequent occasion in Saudi Arabia, pending additional overview.
“Notice of these changes given by the MENA Tour is insufficient to allow OWGR to conduct the customary necessary review ahead of the LIV Golf Invitational Bangkok (7-9 October) and LIV Golf Invitational Jeddah (14-16 October),” a press release posted to the OWGR web site and social media handles mentioned. “Only after the review is complete will a decision be made on awarding points to the MENA Tour’s new ‘Limited Field Tournaments,’ defined by the MENA Tour in its Regulations as ‘any MENA Tour-approved tournament, which comprises of a player field of less than 80 players.’”
It’s not instantly clear whether or not the transfer might speed up LIV’s path to OWGR-dom, or whether or not it might really backfire; that LIV is chasing legitimacy however partnering with a mini-tour and alternating occasion purses of $20 million (for LIV occasions) with $75,000 (for normal MENA occasions) is, on its face, ridiculous. Perhaps that’s a part of the purpose; if LIV can’t be a part of the system, it’ll hope to undermine its very construction.
8. What is Greg Norman saying?
Norman sounded off on Friday in a TV interview with WION (video under) following this week’s push-back from the OWGR.
“No, it’s not a setback,” he mentioned. “It’s a setback for them. Because fairly truthfully my gamers ought to have it. There’s 22 excursions on the market, I imagine, which have world rating factors. There’s just one that’s both equal or slightly bit superior to what LIV is. Only one out of these 22. So it doesn’t make sense from a serious’s perspective, it doesn’t make sense from a broadcaster’s perspective. You’re paying and investing in your energy of subject. And by degrading the energy of subject by not permitting LIV gamers to get OWGR factors, it’s not doing the sport of golf any good.
“Rise above it all. It’s good for the players, it’s good for the game of golf, it’s good for production, it’s good for corporations, it’s good for OEMs, it’s good for fans, it’s good for everybody — just because you have a negative viewpoint, and you’re one of the voting members of an independent organization, that you hate LIV, that you’re going to vote against it? Grow up.”
The head of the MENA Tour added his personal objections in a launch.
9. What are LIV gamers saying?
This gained’t come as an enormous shock, however LIV golfers are suggesting that they need to, actually, get factors! Many of the circuit’s huge names have spoken out in favor, most not too long ago the unlikely alliance of Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka, who took to the mic after Friday’s spherical.
“They’re delaying the inevitable,” DeChambeau mentioned. “We’ve hit every mark in their criteria, so for us not to get points is kind of crazy with having – at least I believe – we have the top players in the world. Not all of them, but we certainly believe that there’s enough that are the top 50 and we deserve to be getting world-ranking points.”
“I don’t think it really was much of a response,” Koepka added. “I just hate when you sit on the fence. Just pick a side. If it’s a yes or no, just pick one. So I’m not a big fan of that. … If it’s a yes, if it’s a no, it’s fine. We’ll figure it out from there.”
10. What are non-LIV gamers saying?
In common, PGA Tour and DP World Tour professionals agree that LIV golfers ought to get world rating factors — however additionally they acknowledge the method is in place for a cause.
“I hope for them that it does go through and they get World Ranking points. It seems like if 48 great golfers play in a tournament, week in and week out, to my eye, should get points,” Max Homa mentioned on the Presidents Cup. “But there is a criteria. That’s how the world works.”
Matthew Fitzpatrick urged persistence, too.
“I understand why they think they deserve points because of the players they’ve got, and don’t disagree with that, but if you look at all the other tours in previous years that have gone through the official process then it takes a year or two,” he advised Sky Sports.
“If they meet the criteria they get world ranking points,” McIlroy told Sky Sports News forward of the Dunhill Links. “I don’t see any cause why they shouldn’t, so long as they meet the factors that’s set out.
“The one thing that has been frustrating from the start of this is that they don’t want to play by the rules that have been in place for so long. It can’t be one set of rules for a certain amount of people and then a certain set of rules for everyone else — everyone has to abide by the same rules here.”
Time will inform whether or not LIV’s hammer of disruption is highly effective sufficient to bludgeon by means of the OWGR’s course of. These are unprecedented occasions, in spite of everything, and golf’s establishments have confirmed they’re hardly resistant to outdoors forces. Every LIV story appears to finish this fashion, with our eleventh query: What’s subsequent? We don’t have that reply simply but.
The writer (cautiously) welcomes your feedback at dylan_dethier@golf.com.
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