LIV Golf Gives Up In Fight For World Ranking Points, Officially Fails Its Players

LIV Golf is accepting defeat in its quest for Official World Golf Ranking points six months after the Saudi-backed circuit's application was formally denied by the organization. This not only signals a significant loss for LIV, but its forfeit also shows that the circuit has failed its players.

LIV CEO Greg Norman sent a letter to players competing in this week's tournament in Hong Kong announcing the news of LIV withdrawing its application to the OWGR. 

"We have made significant efforts to fight for you and ensure your accomplishments are recognized within the existing ranking system," Norman wrote. "Unfortunately, OWGR has shown little willingness to productively work with us."

The strongest criticisms of LIV Golf when it comes to not meeting OWGR requirements include tournaments only being played over 54 holes, not having a cut, and made up of just 54-player fields. The team aspect involved with LIV doesn't appear to help its cause, either.

One of LIV's key arguments is that other professional golf tours don't meet every qualification laid out by the OWGR, yet some are still recognized by the ranking system. 

It's also worth noting that the seven-member OWGR board making decisions about applications is made up of representatives from each of the four major championships, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, and two DP World Tour representatives. 

Although Monahan and those tied to the DP World Tour reportedly recused themselves when the OWGR made its decision to deny LIV's application, it's fair to say the board isn't exactly the biggest group of LIV Golf fans.

READ: PGA Tour Only Views Six LIV Players As 'Desirable' Targets For A Potential Return

At the end of the day, there are only three things LIV Golf can do to be accepted by the OWGR.

LIV can submit an application, which it did, and hope that the ranking system recognizes the league, which it did not. 

The second avenue LIV could go down would be to change its format (introduce a cut, have more players in the field, etc.) and meet more requirements plainly laid out by the OWGR. If LIV did this it would be too similar to traditional golf making its slogan of ‘Golf, but louder’ completely obsolete.

The third thing LIV could do is to give up and sit around and do nothing, which seems to be the plan moving forward.

It's become abundantly clear to everyone, including everyone with a hand in LIV, that the OWGR is not going to give in and recognize LIV Golf as ‘real golf.’ This, however, doesn't mean LIV needs to wave the white flag making the already not-so-great optics from a public perspective into horrible optics among the players it's paying millions of dollars to.

Speaking of LIV players, Carlos Ortiz recently revealed that he and others were told that the circuit would be receiving OWGR points sooner rather than later. Withdrawing the application - despite everyone knowing the chances of it being accepted are slim - proves that LIV players were lied to and now those same people who lied to them aren't interested in fighting to right the lie.

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Mark covers all sports at OutKick while keeping a close eye on the world of professional golf. He graduated from the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga before earning his master's degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee. He somehow survived living in Knoxville despite ‘Rocky Top’ being his least favorite song ever written. Before joining OutKick, he wrote for various outlets including SB Nation, The Spun, and BroBible. Mark was also a writer for the Chicago Cubs Double-A affiliate in 2016 when the team won the World Series. He's still waiting for his championship ring to arrive. Follow him on Twitter @itismarkharris.