PGA of America CEO and Official World Golf Ranking board member Seth Waugh has revealed the stumbling blocks that couldn’t be overcome in LIV Golf’s application to become a recognised OWGR tour.
The Saudi-funded circuit is into its third year now but still can’t offer its players world ranking points, leaving some of the game’s biggest names in freefall and running out of exemptions to feature in the Majors.
Sixteen LIV players are in the field for this week’s PGA Championship at Valhalla but seven of those are through a special invite.
LIV recently withdrew its request completely, while several members of the breakaway tour have questioned the legitimacy of the rankings.
Waugh serves on the OWGR board and was asked ahead of the second men’s Major of the year about how he expects the situation to be resolved going forward.
“In terms of our invites, we said last year it's going to be a bit more of an art form than a math problem,” he said. “We have the flexibility to do that and I think we have put together the best field in golf.
“As far as OWGR goes, when LIV asked for points, they publicly assumed they were going to have points and made some promises. I think they expected an answer in a very short period of time.
“That's just never happened. So I think they misunderstood how the process went. I'm not saying it's their fault. I'm just saying I think they misunderstood.”
The format of LIV tournaments – 54 holes and no cut – was initially seen as a barrier but Waugh said they are issues the OWGR “can solve”.
There were, however, aspects of the LIV model that proved too much to overcome.
“We told them there was some stuff that we could solve, which is 54 holes and no cut,” he added. “We certainly will in other places, both 54 holes and no cut, now on some of the tour events.
“But there is two fundamental things that we weren't sure we could solve with math, which was relegation and promotion, and what that looked like because that was murky and they didn't want to share exactly who was sort of there and so we never knew the percentages of what that would look like.
“And secondly, just the inherent conflict of team versus individual play and whether that could create a situation, and it actually became public last year when one of the players talked about you know trying to two-putt as opposed to trying to make a putt to win a tournament. He was trying to two-putt for his team.
“So we went back with that and told them if they could solve that or we could engage on it but they didn't change their position. We didn't really change ours.
“We've had very serious conversations about it, and then without telling us publicly, they have withdrawn their application.
“I don't think OWGR's job is to seek out tours to do that, and if they wanted to reapply, we'd certainly entertain it. We've behaved properly.”
