Cameron Smith’s Australian PGA victory at Royal Queensland was notable not just for the fact it was yet another win in an amazing season for the 29-year-old.
It was also the first time since late August the Australian had earned world rankings points, courtesy of his much-publicised switch to Greg Norman’s LIV Golf tour, which saw him pocket a reported sign-on fee of $140 million.
That he’s still ranked third in the world is a testament to the extraordinary performances he put up in the first half of the year, which included his maiden major victory at the Open Championship, as well as a win at the PGA Tour’s flagship event, the Players Championship.
READ MORE: Families of Iran stars threatened with ‘violence’
READ MORE: ‘Highly questionable’ VAR call seals Portugal win
READ MORE: Horan says axe Wallabies selection rule for World Cup
His win at LIV Golf’s Chicago event in September, where he finished three shots clear of Dustin Johnson and Peter Uihlein, simply didn’t happen as far as the world rankings are concerned, despite the fact he beat a field containing 11 other major champions.
The world rankings are very much in the spotlight right now, with Spanish star Jon Rahm describing changes that came into effect in August as “laughable”, while there’s continued debate over whether or not LIV Golf should be recognised by the rankings.
“Any time you get a bunch of the best golfers in the world competing against each other, a ranking system that lets you measure golfer against golfer should be there,” 2006 US Open champion Geoff Ogilvy told Wide World of Sports.
“So, I probably think they should get world golf rankings points.
“How you determine how many points they get, relative to a PGA Tour event or a European Tour event is where it’s harder. I don’t think the fact they’re playing 54 holes matters too much. To be fair, I think they probably should get world rankings points.”
The Australian Open is live on Nine and 9Now from Thursday.
Rahm’s objections related to the fact that the recent DP World Tour Championship, which featured seven of the top 25 players in the world, offered less rankings points to the winner than that week’s PGA Tour event, which didn’t have any top-25 players.
“It’s basically impossible to compare a field playing on the PGA Tour against a field on the DP World Tour and the relativity of all that, and figuring out who played better that week,” Ogilvy explained.
“Was it the guy who won in Europe, or Japan, or America? It’s impossible to measure.
“If you have the top 100 golfers playing against each other every single week then you’d have a pretty accurate ranking, but because everyone plays in different places in different conditions against different fields, they do the best they can. I don’t think they always get it right, but I don’t know how you do it better.”
New Zealand’s Ryan Fox, fresh off a stellar year on the DP World Tour that has seen him rise to No.27 in the world, conceded that the new system doesn’t place enough of a premium on having the top-ranked players in the field.
“There’s definitely some stuff to sort out,” Fox told Wide World of Sports.
“I did hear there will be a review. I can see why they changed it, but there’s definitely some tweaks required.
“I spoke to Rory McIlory about it last week, he made the valid point that he finds it harder to beat one Jon Rahm, as opposed to 20-30 guys ranked from 100-200 in the world.
“The old system used to look after the top players and value them a lot higher than the current system does.”
Fox also admitted the case around LIV players earning rankings points is complicated.
“The argument is certainly valid. Cam is one of the best players in the world, so is DJ,” he said.
“But I can also see it from the other side, which is that some guys have never played a professional event outside of LIV.
“Obviously LIV thinks they’ve ticked a lot of boxes, and OWGR think they haven’t.
“It’s messy, I’m not sure if they should get points or not, that’s for people a lot smarter than me to figure out.”
For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here
The stars who’ve signed with Greg Norman’s LIV Golf tour
For all the latest Sports News Click Here
For the latest news and updates, follow us on Google News.
