The LIV Golf situation with the Official World Golf Ranking has got to be Peter Dawson’s worst nightmare come true.
Last week, LIV’s demands to be included in the ranking system reached a fever pitch when it was disclosed that the players who teed it up in the LIV Golf Invitational Chicago signed a letter sent to Dawson, who serves as the non-voting chairman of the OWGR.
Dawson, the widely admired former CEO of the R&A, has known for some time that LIV was going to seek rankings for its players, and he hoped that the decision-making process would not be what he called “political.” That now seems unavoidable, given LIV’s unwillingness to follow long-established precedents to place demands on the OWGR.
In part, the letter read: "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.”
LIV continues to look backward, claiming that “LIV’s roster includes 21 of the last 51 winners of the four Majors.” What officials of the first-year tour don’t want to discuss is the number of LIV players who have never made a professional cut, the malcontents who have aged out of being competitive on the PGA Tour, and the players whose bodies are breaking down and found a way to cash in before health issues forced them into irrelevance.
LIV knew the rules when it launched, it knew the composition of the OWGR board, and it knew its business model wouldn’t come close to meeting fully disclosed and accepted criteria.
Cameron Smith, the reigning Open champion and recent LIV signee, is a great player, but there are not a lot of Cam Smiths competing in LIV Golf. Rather, there are a lot of guys such as Richard Bland, Laurie Canter, James Piot and Turk Pettit. Which is to say, guys who are not needle movers, guys whom you may have never even heard of.
The fact is that LIV, by design, fails to meet way too many criteria set forth by the OWGR. The tour plays 54 holes, with small (48-man) fields, no cuts, and on and on. If it were close, at the margin, LIV might have a chance. But it’s not close. The very business model upon which LIV is built is a challenge to the well-established OWGR criteria.
Meanwhile, flamethrowing Twitter accounts aligned with LIV Golf exploded. They were taunting, abrasive, and desperate in their demands, all but suggesting that LIV knows that its hopes are fading. LIV should pray that Peter Dawson doesn’t use Twitter.
It’s highly likely that, in recruiting players, LIV promised that getting OWGR inclusion was the equivalent of a tap-in putt. The older guys – Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter and Sergio García among them – probably didn’t care too much about this, as their day is passing them by. But other players are now coming to the realization that such promises were unfounded, and that their rankings are going to plummet, quickly. Those with major-championship exemptions will likely be OK, for a while, but those without are not likely to stroll the fairways of Augusta National ever again.
Buyer’s remorse could be setting in among some who took the Saudis’ petrodollars. They will be hard-pressed to find any sympathy among their former PGA Tour lodge brothers or golf fans.
In the world in which we live, you can sue anyone for any reason at any time. Should LIV fail to persuade the OWGR to grant recognition, expect a lawsuit. LIV already has proved to be aggressive in the U.S. judicial system, suing the PGA Tour on antitrust grounds. But lawyers with whom I have spoken said there are no grounds for a suit against the OWGR, and any such attempt would be dismissed quickly. LIV knew the rules when it launched, it knew the composition of the OWGR board, and it knew its business model wouldn’t come close to meeting fully disclosed and accepted criteria. But now it wants the rules changed and the board to recuse itself. Good luck with that.
LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman always has thought that he was bigger than the PGA Tour and smarter than everyone else in golf. The former was never true; Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods never thought they were bigger than the tour. The latter was proved wrong in 1994, when PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem, with a great assist from Arnold Palmer, decisively outfoxed him and his plan for a World Golf Tour.
Norman’s smarts were proven overrated again last week. Why would a reasonable person challenge Peter Dawson, of all people, and publicize it widely, if there were an application process underway with OWGR? In other words, why challenge the jury that will decide your fate before it has even begun deliberations?
Backing your opponent into a corner is rarely a winning strategy in business. Norman won two major championships and a spot in the World Golf Hall of Fame, but as a business negotiator, he is an 18-handicapper. This is just another reason why the overseers of the Saudis’ Public Investment Fund, LIV’s financial backer, must be scratching their collective heads about the wisdom of the choice of the man to lead LIV.
LIV Golf has staged five events, and now Norman wants world-ranking points retroactively. The magnificence of Norman’s sense of entitlement never ceases to amaze.
Top: Greg Norman during the recent LIV Golf Invitational Series Chicago
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