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Two-time major champion Dustin Johnson has been hit with a blow ahead of the new LIV Golf League season.
The 38-year-old has fallen outside the top 50 on the Official World Golf Ranking for the first time in 13 years.
As of this week, Johnson is now the 51st best player on the planet according to the latest OWGR standings, one place below fellow American J.T. Poston.
Less than two years ago, he was top of the standings, where, to date, he has spent a combined 135 weeks – third only to Tiger Woods (683) and Greg Norman (331).
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Johnson, who was one of the first players to jump ship for LIV, hasn’t been ranked this low since January 2010.
It leaves only five LIV Golf players – Cam Smith, Joaquin Niemann, Abraham Ancer, Talor Gooch and Harold Varner III – inside the world’s top-50.
He hasn’t collected a single ranking point since last summer’s The 150th Open at St Andrews, where he finished in a tie for sixth. He might have bagged some at the Saudi International last week but was forced to withdraw ahead of the tournament with a back injury.
It’s not as though Johnson hasn’t been competitive since his switch to LIV. In seven events on the Saudi-funded circuit, he won once (in Boston) and had five other top-eight finishes.
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His current position is likely to intensify calls for the ranking to include LIV players. An application was submitted to the OWGR board by the upstart enterprise last year but, as yet, no decision has been made.
Last month, it was revealed that PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and his DP World Tour counterpart Keith Pelley had recused themselves from voting on the LIV application.
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