LIV Golf's Dustin Johnson sinks to remarkable career low
Dustin Johnson has moved outside of the top 150 players in the Official World Golf Ranking for the first time since 2008.
For the first time since 2008, Dustin Johnson has slipped outside of the top 150 players in the world.
As of 27 November 2023, Johnson is now No. 152 in the Official World Golf Ranking.
Johnson, 39, became the world's best player in February 2017 and remained atop the rankings for 64 consecutive weeks.
It represented the fifth longest streak at the summit in golf's history.
Unsurprisingly, Tiger Woods - who has topped the rankings 11 times in his career - has the longest consecutive streak as the World No.1.
Between 12 June 2005 and 30 October 2010, Woods spent 281 weeks at the top.
As for Johnson, it goes without saying his tumble down the rankings is owing to his switch to the LIV Golf League.
He was one of the first players to join the breakaway tour in June 2022 after agreeing a lucrative, multi-year deal.
Johnson came into the 2021-2022 season ranked inside the top five players in the OWGR after claiming the 2020 Masters at Augusta National.
By the time he teed off in LIV's opening event at Centurion Club in June 2022, Johnson had fallen to 15th in the rankings.
He then tumbled outside the top 50 players for the first time in 13 years.
The golfer, married to Paulina Gretzky, endured a tough time across the majors in 2023.
He made the cut at Augusta National and eventually posted a T-48, finished T-55 at the PGA Championship before tying for 10th at the U.S. Open. Johnson missed the cut at the 151st Open.
At the time of publication, Brooks Koepka and Cameron Smith are the only LIV players who remain inside the OWGR's top 50 players.
LIV were officially denied in their bid for OWGR accreditation in October 2023.
The topic of whether or not the rival league should receive ranking points has been a source of controversy.
Johnson hasn't complained about his world ranking since joining LIV, but he maintained he had played well enough to make the 2023 U.S. Ryder Cup side.
He memorably went 5-0-0 at the 2021 Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits as Steve Stricker's side emphatically beat Europe 19-9.
"I didn't have the best year," he previously said. "Was it good enough to make the team? I think so.
"If I would have been playing on [the PGA Tour], yeah, I would have made the team. Do I think I can help the U.S. team? Absolutely."
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