Smith’s rankings freefall hits new low

Cameron Smith was spraying champagne and on top of the world after taking out the LIV team championship in Dallas this week and picking up $20m in prize money for his all-Australian Ripper GC.

But while he and his teammates were enjoying their own Mad Monday at Smith’s Florida home, the cold reality of his move to the breakaway tour hit.

Smith, the world No.2 in 2023 before his big-money defection, has fallen out of the world’s top 100 on the official rankings for the first time since he broke in by finishing fourth at the 2017 Australian Open.

His fall down the rankings comes after just one top-10 finish in any of the four majors this year – his tied for sixth at the Masters – the only events the 2022 British Open champ can earn rankings points in.

A return home for the Australian summer of golf, pending better performances than his emotional missed cut at last year’s Australian PGA, could get him back inside the top 100 after the Australian Open.

But it looms as a short stay given the scant movement in ongoing talks between the Saudi Public Investment Fund, which backs LIV, and the PGA Tour about bringing the rivals closer together in some way.

An unwillingness by the Saudis to declare their entirety of investments in the US, a necessary component for any deal to be approved by the US Justice Department, could prove a major spanner in the works.

It’s a fear Adam Scott, a leading voice among PGA Tour players, is aware of.

“It’s possible it doesn’t happen. I mean, it will ultimately be up to the Department of Justice to kind of guide that,” Scott said at the Presidents Cup in Canada, another event Smith can’t play in courtesy of his move to LIV.

“I think as we have read and as Jay (PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan) has said, both parties are working toward a deal, but it’s not completely up to the two parties trying to do the deal.

“It’s been going on a long time, so there’s times when it seems like it’s been sorry, it’s constantly being worked on all the time.”

Courtesy of their recent major wins, both Bryson de Chambeau (10) and Brooks Koepka (64), as well as first-year LIV players Jon Rahm (15), Tyrrell Hatton (38) and Adrian Meronk (88) are the only members of their tour in the top 100.