All 48 players competing at the LIV Golf Invitational Chicago, as well as the tournament’s non-playing captain and reserve player, sent the letter below to Peter Dawson, Chairman of the Official World Golf Ranking.
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
