LIV golfers send letter to OWGR chairman asking for retroactive inclusion of results in rankings

Each of the 48 players who competed in last week’s LIV Golf event outside Chicago have signed a letter sent to the chairperson of the Official World Golf Ranking asking that OWGR retroactively include LIV Golf results in its rankings.

The letter was sent to OWGR chairperson Peter Dawson on Friday. The letter was also signed by nonplaying captain Bubba Watson and reserves.

“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,” the players wrote in the letter. “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 players have not received points for their finishes in the first five tournaments staged by the new circuit, which is being fronted by two-time Open winner Greg Norman and financed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.

“Some 23 tours are integrated into the OWGR universe, and LIV has earned its place among them,” the letter said. “Four LIV golfers have held the number-one position on the OWGR, and one is currently number-two [Cameron Smith is now third, actually].

“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.”

The letter noted that two-time major champion Dustin Johnson has fallen from 13th to 22nd (he is now 23rd) since joining LIV Golf, despite finishing eighth, third, second and first in his first four events.

Other LIV golfers also have slipped in the OWGR, including Brooks Koepka (29th), Louis Oosthuizen (33rd) and Talor Gooch (36th).

The OWGR standings are used to determine…