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The Great White is waving the white flag as LIV Golf is recognized into the Official World Golf Ranking. Greg Norman, CEO and commissioner of the Saudi-funded league, informed the players that LIV had withdrawn its application.
LIV Golf first applied for world ranking points in July 2022, about a month after the league was launched in which the same 48 players competed over 54 uncut holes.
Last October, the OWGR Board of Directors declared that a league with the same group of players could not be fairly compared to the other 24 tours around the world, which have more extensive tournaments and paths to entry. The application was officially rejected.
“We have fought for you and worked hard to ensure your achievements are recognized within the existing ranking system,” Norman wrote in a letter reported by multiple media outlets. stated in a letter to. “Unfortunately, OWGR has shown little desire to work productively with us.”
The four major majors use world rankings as part of their criteria. Major representatives were the ones who voted to deny LIV’s application last fall.
More influential are the Olympics, which also rely on world rankings to determine qualification. Players like former British Open champions Cameron Smith (Australia) and Tyrrell Hatton (England) are unlikely to qualify depending on their performance at majors.
OWGR board chairman Peter Dawson said in October that he was “not at war” with LIV. He said this was a technical decision, not a political one. Dawson said LIV didn’t have a format that could fairly rank it with other tours and “thousands of players trying to compete there.”
LIV currently has 54 players, with team competitions as well as individual play. Four players qualified for the 2024 season, making the squad for 13 tournaments, excluding the occasional injury reserve.
At this point, it’s mostly moot.
LIV only has 4 players in the top 50 and 8 players in the top 100. Their numbers are decreasing.
Two of the top 50, Masters champion Jon Rahm (3rd place) and Hatton (17th place), have only joined LIV within the last few months. The others are PGA champion Brooks Koepka (30th) and Smith (50th).
Even if LIV makes adjustments to allow for more open qualifying, the players are far removed from the top and it will be difficult to regain their place.
LIV players can currently only earn points by participating in tours in Europe and Asia. Joaquin Niemann (76th) won the Australian Open and finished in the top five at two other co-sanctioned European Tour events. That was enough to earn him an invitation to the Masters.
LIV will have 13 players participating in the Masters. Niemann received an invitation to the PGA Championship and qualified for the British Open with his win at the Australian Open.
Anthony Kim returned to competition last week for the first time in 12 years. Long since he left, only six players remain in the top 50 since Kim last played.
Does anyone attending today’s game really know much about him other than the story of his wild life off the golf course?
“I know a fair amount,” Scottie Scheffler said.
It turns out that Kim was living in Dallas when he turned pro in 2006 and played at Royal Oaks, where Scheffler learned the game under Randy Smith. Scheffler was famous for bothering tour pros who played at the Royal Oaks, and Kim was no exception.
“I would have been 10 years old,” Scheffler said. “He was fun. I guess I was a pretty annoying kid, always chasing after him. He’s a troublesome adult. I still have some of his old clubs. I was watching them practice, and we were playing well.”
Scheffler said he even picked up some habits.
“One of the things he taught me was that when you see the shot from behind the ball, you need to be on the same line as where you hit it,” Scheffler said. “As I was watching him do it, I was also casually doing it from the side. He said, ‘No, that’s where you’re aiming.’ Step back and see where you’re going.” That’s when you get the idea (of the shot). ”
Scheffler said he checked Kim’s scores in his LIV debut in Saudi Arabia (76-76-74, finishing 33 strokes behind) but had not seen it other than a few replays.
“I’ve known him since I was a kid, and he’s a really great guy,” Scheffler said.
Gary Woodland is praised for returning to golf after brain surgery. The Golf Writers Association of America voted him the Ben Hogan Award, given to an individual who remains active in golf despite his physical handicap or serious illness.
And this was serious work.
Woodland underwent surgery in September to remove part of the lesion, which was pressing on nerves in her brain and causing emotions such as fear of death. Doctors cut a baseball-sized hole in the side of his head to perform the surgery.
The former U.S. Open champion returned to the PGA Tour in January.
“The doctors kept telling me I was fine, but this thing was putting pressure on my brain… It didn’t matter if I was driving a car or on a plane. Everything. I thought it was going to kill me,” Woodland said. “You can imagine how I felt leading up to the surgery, when they had to cut my head open and operate on me. The fear leading up to it was terrible.”
Woodland will be recognized April 10 during the Masters and GWAA annual awards dinner.
The GWAA also presented European Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald with the Jim Murray Award for his cooperation and consideration of the media. Mike Kaiser, a visionary from Oregon’s Bandon Dunes, has been awarded the William D. Richardson Award for outstanding contributions to golf.
In the best of three starts on the PGA Tour, Jake Knapp won the Mexican Open, tied for third at Torrey Pines and tied for fourth at the Cognizant Classic, earning $2,279,250.
Louis Oosthuizen earned $2,392,500 in three LIV Golf appearances, tying for eighth in Mayakoba, tying for 50th in Las Vegas and tying for second in Saudi Arabia.
Angela Stanford earned an exemption to the Chevron Championship, making her 98th consecutive start in an LPGA major. This is the longest consecutive active career in an LPGA major. … The USGA was presented with memorabilia related to Charlie Sifford, the first black golfer to win on the PGA Tour and the first black golfer to be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame. His work will be displayed at his USGA Museum in New Jersey and the World Golf Hall of Fame in Pinehurst, North Carolina. … Austin Eckrot became the fourth first-time winner of nine PGA Tour events this year.
Windham Clark was ranked 10th in the world when he won at Pebble Beach. No other PGA Tour winners this year ranked inside the top 50.
“Once we get to the majors, it’ll be really fun to get together again. The kind of utopian goal for all of us right now is to have the best players in the world playing every week.” — Will Zaratris.
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AP Golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
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