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OWGR board chairman Peter Dawson and PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan on the Alfred Dunhill Hyperlinks Championship at Carnoustie Golf Hyperlinks, simply days earlier than the OWGR introduced it had rejected LIV Golf’s software.
Ross Parker / Getty Pictures
Ah, 2023. The yr every part modified … once more. For the second straight yr, we left 2023 with a drastically completely different perspective {of professional} golf than we entered. Now, as we glance again on the yr that was — with LIV main championships, Ryder Cup controversies and oh so many different tales — we’re remembering the 15 largest moments that outlined the yr in golf. Let’s get digging.
In case you missed our earlier high tales on this sequence, examine ’em out right here:
Largest Golf Moments of 2023 … No. 15: Viktor Hovland’s arrival | No. 14: Fowler, Day again within the winner’s circle | No. 13: Brian Harman’s Open rout | No. 12: The Michael Block Celebration | No. 11: Wyndham Clark’s breakout | No. 10: Lilia Vu’s rise
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Largest Golf Moments of 2023, No. 9: LIV denied OWGR factors
On Oct. 10, 2023, some 16 months after its first occasion, LIV Golf suffered a important defeat by the hands of a few of golf’s most necessary decision-makers: the OWGR board. It was a procedural determination however one with important penalties for the worldwide panorama {of professional} golf — and that’s why it cracks our high 10 tales of the yr.
The Official World Golf Rating (OWGR) is key to the construction of males’s skilled golf as a result of it compares gamers from throughout excursions in an effort to find out the most effective gamers in addition to these most deserving of berths in its largest competitions.
This summer season and early fall, LIV Golf was nonetheless hopeful about its probabilities. For the fledgling league, acceptance from the OWGR would mark an enormous step ahead in two areas. The primary could be concrete: If LIV golfers had been capable of obtain OWGR factors, they’d have the ability to qualify for the 4 main championships by LIV, thus eradicating one barrier that had execs hesitant to hitch and strengthening LIV’s place in negotiations with the PGA Tour. The second could be one thing no much less necessary however more durable to quantify: legitimacy.
As a substitute, the October determination deemed LIV’s format too dissimilar to established leagues to permit its inclusion within the rating. LIV’s occasions are 54 holes, in comparison with 72 on most excursions. They don’t have a 36-hole reduce. There’s a parallel group aspect which might sometimes result in conflicting motives, like when Sebastian Munoz mentioned he’d lagged a putt to guard his group’s rating regardless of what it might imply for him individually. They usually have closed fields of 48 gamers, most of whom had been signed to contracts reasonably than any form of qualifying system.
LIV Golf formally denied World Rating factors. Right here’s what which means
The OWGR made public its letter to LIV CEO Greg Norman and performing COO Gary Davidson. OWGR chairman Peter Dawson spoke to the Related Press in an effort to depoliticize the announcement, making the case that the format was unattainable to rank equitably.
“We’re not at battle with them,” Dawson instructed the AP. “This determination to not make them eligible just isn’t political. It’s completely technical. LIV gamers are self-evidently ok to be ranked. They’re simply not taking part in in a format the place they are often ranked equitably with the opposite 24 excursions and hundreds of gamers making an attempt to compete on them.”
Dawson made it clear that essentially the most important obstacle to qualifying for factors was a scarcity of turnover. This “closed store” aspect of LIV meant assured survival to these gamers on contract, no matter efficiency. It additionally meant a scarcity of turnover and a scarcity of entry to the league for outsiders. Whereas LIV solely assured its high 24 gamers would hold their seats for the 2024 season, execs like Phil Mickelson (thirty ninth of LIV’s 50 gamers to earn factors), Lee Westwood (forty fifth) and Martin Kaymer (forty ninth) had been beneath contract and thus averted relegation.
“Dustin Johnson, Sergio Garcia, after all they need to be within the rating,” Dawson added, signaling a future alternative for LIV’s inclusion. “We have to discover a option to get that accomplished. I hope that LIV can discover a answer — not a lot their format; that may be handled by a mathematical method — however the qualification and relegation.”
The OWGR had taken different steps to keep away from conflicts of curiosity. Three board members — PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, DP World Tour CEO Keith Pelley and Keith Waters of the Worldwide Federation of PGA Excursions — recused themselves from the choice. However that didn’t imply that LIV would settle for its determination with out rebuttal.
“OWGR’s sole goal is to rank the most effective gamers throughout the globe. In the present day’s communication makes clear that it could not ship on that goal,” LIV responded as a part of a press release, taking a direct shot on the OWGR’s legitimacy.
“Skilled golf is now and not using a true or international scoring and rating system,” the assertion added. “There is no such thing as a profit for followers or gamers from the dearth of belief or readability so long as the most effective participant performances aren’t acknowledged.”
The ripple results proceed to be felt as 2023 involves a detailed.
The PGA Tour, DP World Tour and PIF are in ongoing negotiations little question affected by LIV’s lack of OWGR factors and main championship entry. LIV, which held its first “Promotions” occasion in December, continues to think about various codecs that will be extra interesting to gamers, followers and OWGR board members. Its gamers proceed to slip down the rankings within the meantime; behind current signee Jon Rahm (World No. 3) there are current main champs Brooks Koepka (No. 17) and Cameron Smith (No. 23) with no different LIV golfers inside the highest 60. Whereas six LIV gamers (Rahm, Smith, Koepka, Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau and Phil Mickelson) are exempt into all 4 of subsequent yr’s majors based mostly on current wins, when this yr’s majors come round they might not embrace names like Joaquin Niemann or Talor Gooch.
In different phrases, you may anticipate this discourse to proceed into the brand new yr.
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