Cameron Smith believes the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR) are in danger of becoming obsolete if the system continues to operate without awarding points to LIV’s schedule of events.
The Australian had risen to as high as second in the charts following his victory at The Open in 2022 and many believed the man who also won last year’s Players Championship was destined for the summit.
However, Smith had other ideas, choosing to join the Saudi-backed circuit safe in the knowledge of the consequence of such a move. Now Smith claims his ranking situation hurts having dropped from 2 to 4 and sliding since accepting a reported $140m to join LIV.
“For sure, it hurts,” Smith said before posting a three-over par opening effort in Saudi.
“I feel as though I was really close to getting to No 1, and that was definitely something I wanted to tick off.
“I think when you rock up at a tournament, you know who you have to beat, whether there is a world ranking or not. There are generally seven-eight guys that are in that field that you know are going to put up a pretty good fight.
“However, the longer this stuff goes on, I think the more obsolete those rankings become. Do we need them? It would be nice, but you know who you’ve got to beat when you get on the golf course.”
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