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PGA, Golf Herren U.S. Open – Practice Round Jun 12, 2023 Los Angeles, California, USA Dustin Johnson walks on the 10th green during a practice round of the U.S. Open golf tournament. Los Angeles California USA, EDITORIAL USE ONLY PUBLICATIONxINxGERxSUIxAUTxONLY Copyright: xKiyoshixMiox 20230612_jla_ma1_110| Credits: Imago
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PGA, Golf Herren U.S. Open – Practice Round Jun 12, 2023 Los Angeles, California, USA Dustin Johnson walks on the 10th green during a practice round of the U.S. Open golf tournament. Los Angeles California USA, EDITORIAL USE ONLY PUBLICATIONxINxGERxSUIxAUTxONLY Copyright: xKiyoshixMiox 20230612_jla_ma1_110| Credits: Imago
Remember 2022? The year when the PGA Tour golfers ditched the league for a better future at the LIV Golf? The players then were unaware that it would become a nuisance for their world golf ranking, despite them playing their best game.
One such player affected by the OWGR’s LIV Golf rejection is Dustin Johnson, the former number one has fallen in the ranks despite being nonchalant about the whole fiasco, and the rank of the former PGA Tour pro is falling day by day.
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Dustin Johnson’s sinking rank
In 2022, a bunch of golfers joined LIV Golf. At that time, it could have not been predicted that one year down the line, the breakaway league would fail to secure the Official World Golf Ranking points for its events. The lack of OWGR points affected the LIV golfers, as is evident when looking at the rank of most of the LIV defectors.
In October, the OWGR rejected the appeal by LIV Golf to be accepted in the world points system as other leagues and have its players rank up on the rankings as well. The decision has hit the LIV players hard as their ranks drop exponentially. The likes of Dustin Johnson, a former World No.1 now stands outside the top 100.
Johnson, who started 2022 as the world number three and was 16th on OWGR when he joined LIV Golf, is now nowhere near the top 20. Fun fact the 2x major winner had been world number for more than 100 weeks in his career, and now sits at the 165th mark, it is by far the worst ranking of his career after he started going up in the OWGR list. Although the lowering rank may not affect Johnson as much as others, since he can still play the majors.
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Dustin Johnson lines up a putt during a practice round before the start of the 2021 Masters Tournament at Augusta National in Augusta, Georgia on Monday, April 5, 2021. The Masters will start on Thursday, April 8th with limited in-person patron attendance. PUBLICATIONxINxGERxSUIxAUTxHUNxONLY AUG20210405320 KEVINxDIETSCH. Image Courtesy: IMAGO
Johnson won the 2016 US Open and the 2020 Masters (held in 2021) as the winner of the past major championships. Johnson will be qualifying for the upcoming majors despite his fallen rank. Moreover, the South Carolina native has opined that the lack of OWGR points and the subsequent massive drop in his ranking do not affect him at all.
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Dustin Johnson’s take on OWGR rejection and lowering rank
After the OWGR rejected the breakaway league’s appeal, the LIV golfers teed it up at the Jeddah for the Individual Championship. Many including, Patrick Reed, Talor Gooch, and Cameron Smith expressed their disappointment regarding the decision, however; Johnson seemed to be the least bit bothered by it.
The 24x PGA Tour winner said, “The rankings are skewed. It doesn’t really affect me as it does some of the other guys. I want the points for the other guys.” Moreover, he also explained that it isn’t viable to use the world ranking anymore if they exclude 48 good players from the ranking system.
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After reigning the world’s number-one spot for weeks, Dustin Johnson has surely experienced a sort of downfall. However, the up-and-coming PGA Tour and PIF merger may soothe some of the issues LIV golfers have faced.
Watch this Story: ‘Rarely Got to Spend’: Jon Rahm Evokes His Emotional Side While Justifying His LIV Golf Move
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