Cam Smith’s reaction to world ranking fall speaks volumes as LIV Golf star hits unwanted milestone

Cameron Smith became one of the marquee names to join LIV Golf two years ago, and the former world No. 2 has seen his since seen name tumble down the world rankings.

Cameron Smith has admitted he ‘giggled’ when seeing his name fall out of the top-100 in the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) for the first time in seven years last month.

Smith has announced himself as one of golf’s star players in recent years, climbing as high as second in the Official World Golf Ranking after being crowned Open champion two years ago. In the weeks following his Claret Jug victory at St Andrews, Smith opted to make the move to LIV Golf.

Since then, the Australian has become the face of one of LIV’s most popular franchises, Ripper G.C., captaining the all-Aussie team alongside Marc Leishman, Matt Jones and Lucas Herbert.

His time with the breakaway league has come with success, having won three individual titles and three team titles, as well as clinching the 2024 Team Championship with Ripper in Dallas last month. His efforts on the LIV setup however have not been recognised in the world rankings.

The Saudi-funded circuit is continuing to host its events without world ranking points on offer, with LIV bosses still yet to come to an agreement with OWGR over rewarding its players for its efforts on the breakaway circuit. The lack of points on offer has seen some of the league’s biggest names tumble down the rankings.

One of those being Smith, who now finds himself a world away from his former spot as the second best player on the planet. Last week finally saw the Australian star fall outside the world’s top-100, currently finding himself 117th in the list, his worst ranking since October 2017.

According to Fox Sports, Smith stated he had a ‘giggle’ after he heard of his latest rating drop. He will, however, get a chance to further enhance it somewhat going towards the New Year having had a chance to pen-/join up for four other occasions when he was at home and these include the Australian PGA and the Australian Open in November.

“I think most people would know how much I want to win an Australian Open,” Smith said. “The last couple of years coming home has been like a holiday to me in a way because I can leave the clubs behind.” Also I do notice that (this year) I have put the clubs down enough and had enough time to get the golf bug back.

‘I didn’t want to have another period of time again that I was out of competing for maybe four or five weeks. After the last couple of years, with the way that has gone, I didn’t think that was a very bright idea. But there was no reason to not play, and why not play at home?”

The perfect example of this is Smith who would stand to benefit from a signing off of the PGA Tour and the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia. But even with protracted talks in mind, he thinks it might not be long before conditions improve. ‘It’s a really big process that everyone underestimated just how big it was going to be,’ he added. ‘It is taking some time, but I think that there are some good things going on.’