LIV denied ❌

The Official World Golf Ranking decided Tuesday to reject an application from LIV Golf that would have allowed players to earn OWGR points on the upstart tour.

Why it matters: The OWGR is a barometer, meant to measure the best golfers in the world. But more importantly, the ranking system is used across all four major championships as a way players can earn entry into the coveted events.

• If LIV golfers can’t rack up OWGR points during their season, their chances of qualifying for the majors will likely start to dwindle moving forward.

“We are not at war with them,” Peter Dawson, chairman of the OWGR board, told the AP. “This decision not to make them eligible is not political… They’re just not playing in a format where they can be ranked equitably with the other 24 tours and thousands of players trying to compete on them.”

Details: Interestingly, the OWGR said it could probably find workarounds for the differences in LIV events, like smaller field sizes, the absence of cuts, and fewer holes played (54 vs 72).

• But the board couldn’t get past the closed nature of LIV itself. While the top 24 (out of 48 players) are guaranteed a spot for next year, LIV has also granted 14 players (like Phil Mickelson, Bubba Watson, and Ian Poulter) full-exemptions regardless of their play.

• And, there were only four spots up-for-grabs for the 2024 season, while LIV’s management team is set to select the rest of the new faces on tour. As the OWGR put it, LIV’s “current structure is not consistent with the underlying principles of fairness and meritocracy on which the OWGR system is based.” (The AP’s Doug Ferguson noted that most golf tours around the world see a 20-25% turnover rate each year.)

• Meanwhile, the OWGR also took issue with LIV’s team component and how it could impact individual play.

The other side: “Professional golf is now without a true or global scoring and ranking system,” LIV Golf said in response to Tuesday’s decision.

• “It also robs some traditional tournaments of the best fields possible.”

What’s next: It’s unclear! But the LIV golfers who were promised that OWGR points would come one day can’t be pleased.

• Players like Cam Smith and Brooks Koepka, who both won major tournaments recently and are ranked 15th and 18th in the world respectively, seem to be fine for now.

• But the future for players like Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, and Talor Gooch (who are outside the OWGR’s top 100), is going to get interesting.

Nick’s take: I’m still focused on the negotiations between the PGA Tour, DP World Tour, and the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia (the backers of LIV) that are supposed to be finalized by Dec. 31.

• Pardon me for saying it, but if a “merger” does happen and LIV (as we know it) goes away, most of this talk around OWGR points probably doesn’t matter.

• I do think that the OWGR rejection weakens LIV’s hand a bit, and I wonder how it will impact broader negotiations.

A special thanks to Holderness & Bourne for sponsoring today’s newsletter.

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Vegas! 🤩

The Shriners Children’s Open kicks off tomorrow at TPC Summerlin in Las Vegas. Here’s what you need to know heading into the event:

Top players (and their odds to win outright, according to DraftKings):

• Tom Kim (11-1)

• Ludvig Åberg (12-1)

• Si Woo Kim (20-1)

• Cam Davis (25-1)

• J.T. Poston (28-1)

• Adam Schenk (30-1)

Notables also include European Ryder Cup player Nicolai Hojgaard (40-1), last week’s winner Luke List (60-1), and the man who almost won last week, Ben Griffin (55-1).

Top storyline: Lexi Thompson will tee it up this week becoming the just seventh woman to ever play in a PGA Tour event.

• If Thompson were to make the cut, she’d be the first woman to do so since 1945.

• “It would definitely be at the top of my accomplishments,” Thompson said, regarding the prospect of making it to the weekend.

A bit about the course: Typically, TPC Summerlin plays as one of the easier courses on tour (Tom Kim shot -24 last year to win).

• Given the need to go low, the golf analytics site RickRunGood noted that some of the most important stats for players this week will be tied to putting (especially their ability to drain putts within 10 feet).

• So, watch out for players who can get hot with their flatsticks.

Best bets: I’m not really a betting man, but I thought it would be fun to pick a few winners here each week with bets that can be found on DraftKings. Maybe it’s the Vegas tournament that finally inspired me to do this.

Eventually, I’ll start to compile my overall record (probably in the new year). For now, here are some bets I like for this week…

• Harry Hall is one of the best putters on Tour and has played well at the Shriners over the last two years — T8 and T15. I’ll take him to finish as the top Englishman (+350).

• Last week was tough on Ben Griffin (who bogeyed the 72nd hole and eventually lost in a playoff). And, after a similar blown lead last year in Bermuda, Griffin finished T59 the following week. That’s part of the reason why I like Justin Suh over Griffin this week (+100). Suh missed the cut in Vegas last year, but finished T8 his previous time playing in 2020.

• Besides Webb Simpson, Adam Hadwin has the best course history in this week’s field for any golfer who’s played TPC Summerlin more than 20 times, according to RickRunGood. I like Hadwin this week to at least finish within the top 20 (+160).

• Outright winner: Eric Cole (35-1). Cole’s going to win one of these week’s and why not this one? And at 35-1, he also seems a bit undervalued here.

Fun fact to-go: Tiger Woods won the first of his 82 PGA Tour victories at TPC Summerlin back in 1996 when the tournament was known as the Las Vegas Invitational.

More news

Keegan Bradley, Cam Young, and Sahith Theegala are the latest players to sign up for Tiger and Rory’s TGL virtual golf league, which will now include six teams of four players. According to the latest press release, “Each TGL match will feature three players competing for each team in a modern match-play format.” (PGA Tour)

TikTok has given us a new angle of Viktor Hovland’s Friday morning chip-in at the Ryder Cup, and it is filthy. (Watch here)

The PGA Tour has suspended Byeong Hun An for three-months for violating its anti-doping policy. An apparently tested positive for a banned substance that’s found in over-the-counter cough medicine from his native country of South Korea.

• He’s eligible to play again on Dec 1. (SI)

And finally…

This looks very fun AND very dangerous.

That’s all for today. Thanks so much for reading ya’ll and if you enjoyed today’s edition, please share it with a friend who you definitely would not trust to light a bonfire with a golf ball.

Have a great night and see you back here for a Shriners’ mid-tournament recap.

Until then, Nick B.