The fight for legitimacy in professional golf has taken yet another twist. Since its inception, LIV Golf has faced a lot of criticism from the PGA Tour, its members, and several other golf entities. Its tactics of attracting elite golfers with high payouts have been hailed as devious. OWGR even denied LIV Golf’s application for gaining eligible tour status to get OWGR points for world rankings. However, ex-Chief Peter Dawson doesn’t regret the decision.

Dawson says that OWGR had to make that decision. In fact, he was the organization’s chief when the application was rejected. He became the chairman of the Official World Golf Ranking in 2016 and gave up the position in April 2025. The reason he cited for this decision was OWGR’s duty to ensure all golfers are ranked equitably. “Some aspects of the LIV format made that impossible. In my opinion, OWGR made the only decision it could at the time. I know that LIV has now reapplied to be included in the OWGR system,” Peter Dawson said.

LIV Golf submitted a new application for inclusion in the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) system on June 30, 2025. LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil expressed optimism about the latest application, thanking OWGR chairman Trevor Immelman for his leadership. O’Neil also emphasized LIV’s commitment to aligning with the OWGR to ensure the game’s top players are represented properly.

While Dawson does not regret the decision, he sure is disappointed with its impact on golfers. “I was very disappointed that we could not do so with LIV,” Dawson said. “It is self-evident that players on the LIV tour are good enough to be ranked because they were before.” Many who joined LIV Golf are elite golfers who had previously ranked high on the OWGR. For instance, Jon Rahm, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Cameron Smith, Phil Mickelson, and Lee Westwood all ranked as World No. 1 before joining LIV. Sergio Gracia and Henrik Stenson achieved the highest OWGR ranking of 2nd, while Bryson DeChambeau was ranked 3rd before committing to LIV. So it is not like the golfers on the roster are not good enough for the world rankings. That’s exactly what disappoints Peter Dawson the most.

These golfers were once among the highest-ranked golfers, but now their rankings have dropped because the OWGR didn’t accept LIV’s application. For instance, Cameron Smith’s ranking dropped to 206, while Jon Rahm’s position has dropped to 66. Many LIV golfers also criticized this decision by the OWGR. “I think it is almost obsolete now,” Smith said about the ranking system. Two-time major winner Dustin Johnson said, “I feel like you can’t really use the world ranking system anymore.”

Peter Dawson also said, “I want all golf initiatives to do well, and I can’t see that LIV has been a success by any measure.” It did give a lot of wealth to a select few golfers, like Jon Rahm, through high contracts, but fan engagement hasn’t been up to par. This also makes Dawson confused about why the league still exists. The league has sustained significant losses since its inception, though it has covered most of those losses through sponsorships and brand collaborations. Ahead of 2026, the league is now trying new strategies to improve fan engagement.

How LIV Golf plans to help fan engagement

LIV Golf has been shaking things up for fans. Teaming up with Salesforce, they created Fan Caddy, an AI-powered system that serves up personalized highlights and even guides fans around events in real time so they can follow their favorite players. It also tweaks broadcast graphics based on what viewers like to see. On top of that, they launched fun initiatives like the TrackMan “Majestics vs. The World” challenge, letting fans from different countries go head-to-head virtually against LIV teams.

The league hasn’t stopped there. They’re using a loyalty platform, eye-catching on-course signage, and data-driven tweaks at events to keep fans more engaged. Sure, the 2025 season wasn’t a blockbuster, but LIV is steadily improving. Its reach has been growing slowly since 2022, hitting over 875 million households across 200+ countries last year. Attendance is climbing too, with more than 60,000 fans in Indianapolis and 100,000 in Adelaide showing up to watch live.

For the players, meanwhile, there’s hope that the OWGR will finally accept LIV’s application, which would let these golfers earn official ranking points and see their standings rise on merit.