Sign up now!!! <\/a><\/p>\nEven so, interest in pushing for more OWGR points clearly remains high for some LIV stars, even if there are attacks to its credibility. <\/p>\n
Last week\u2019s big mover Smylie, an Australian young gun who is in his debut LIV season, made it no secret that his career ambitions largely hinge on playing the majors. <\/p>\n
And, off the back of his 57-place jump in Riyadh, he\u2019s so close to a berth at this year\u2019s Masters \u2013 he must be inside the top 50 \u2013 that he can taste it. <\/p>\n
Cameron Smith at LIV Golf AdelaideSource: FOX SPORTS<\/p>\n
Speaking of his world ranking goals, he said: \u201cDefinitely (to be) top 50 in the world, which I\u2019m very close to achieving. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s great we do get recognition. At the end of the day, good golf takes care of itself so, so I will try win a few more times and, ultimately, the Masters is something that\u2019s on my mind now.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a conversation I can start to have, and it\u2019s fuel to the fire for me. So let\u2019s see what happens these next few weeks.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u2018CAN HURT A LOT\u2019 <\/p>\n
Earlier, former Masters champion Sergio Garcia weighed in on the debate, saying the league\u2019s qualified success still \u201cfeels\u201d unfair. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s definitely a step forward,\u201d Garcia said. <\/p>\n
\u201cIs it fair? I guess time will tell us. It doesn\u2019t feel like it\u2019s totally fair\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen one of us is winning, obviously that guy will make a jump and that\u2019s great. But every time you\u2019re 11th or worse, you\u2019re getting a zero and you\u2019re getting an extra event on your divisor. So that \u2026 can hurt a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cIt\u2019s positive. I think that at the end of the day, it\u2019s going to help some of these kids performing well to move up the rankings. Hopefully they play really well.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut unfortunately only 10 guys can finish in the top 10. It would be nice if it was expanded a little bit farther as we probably think it should. But hopefully it\u2019ll come soon.\u201d<\/p>\n
Garcia is ranked 369th in the world – having once been as high as No.2 – although as the 2017 Masters champion, he has lifetime exemption at Augusta. <\/p>\n
Min Woo goes bananas over epic moment | 03:18<\/p>\n
The Spaniard has previously slammed OWGR rankings points as irrelevant to the majority of LIV players, given how far many of them have plummeted. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s worth noting his exemptions at the other three majors have expired.<\/p>\n
A key change that saw the OWGR finally recognise LIV Golf after nearly four years was the decision to move events from three rounds to four. <\/p>\n
The move has caused a stir within the tour after star recruit Bryson DeChambeau made veiled comments last week about the conditions not being what players \u201csigned up for\u201d. <\/p>\n
His comments came amid the bombshell departures of Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed from the tour.<\/p>\n
Talor Gooch pushed back on fears of more players leaving, saying that \u201ceveryone\u201d he has spoken to is \u201cover the moon\u201d to be on the LIV tour. <\/p>\n
\u201cWith the world ranking and majors, and things kind of softening up on all of those fronts, and the ecosystem starting to accept us slowly but surely, I think it\u2019s going to continue to make this place more and more enticing for people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone is excited. There\u2019s obviously some frustrations with us not getting the whole pie, let\u2019s just say. But you know what, at least we got some pie and let\u2019s keep trying to get some more pie.\u201d<\/p>\n
Garcia, however, was less enthusiastic when speaking about the change to four-round tournaments.<\/p>\n
He said the shift is \u201cfine\u201d, but added other grumbles. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen it comes down to prep, obviously it\u2019s an extra day, so it makes the weeks a tiny bit longer,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith travelling so much overseas, it becomes a little bit tougher to be able to get there with enough time to do prep as well as you might want to.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we\u2019ve done it our whole lives, so we know how it is. But it\u2019s good. It\u2019s fine.\u201d<\/p>\n
His Fireballs teammate David Puig, however, was more positive about the shift, saying it better allows the cream of the field to rise to the top. <\/p>\n
\u201cPersonally, I think for the better players of that week, I think it\u2019s definitely better because you\u2019ve got to perform better for an extra day to actually win the tournament or finish high,\u201d Puig said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think (with) the three-day, that first round was really important. If you started really well, you obviously had a chance to win, but you weren\u2019t guaranteed to finish high. But obviously the chances of you finishing pretty high was easier.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the other hand, if you had a pretty poor first round, then you were kind of battling the next two days to crack the top 10 or top 15, whatever. I think it\u2019s more fair and it\u2019s just better.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018I\u2019D TAKE ANOTHER\u2019<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Garcia was asked for his view on renewed commentary about the PGA Tour\u2019s Players Championship being the world\u2019s \u2018fifth major\u2019, and how it stacks up to similar claims about Australia being worthy of its own elevated event. <\/p>\n
This week, Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee caused a stir by saying the Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass might be the greatest tournament in the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn every single way that a metric could be used to measure whether something is a major, the Players, to me, stands alone and above the other four major championships as not just a major. It is, in my estimation, the best major,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Sergio Garcia has weighed in on the debate surrounding LIV Golf\u2019s recognition by golf\u2019s peak world ranking body.Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
Garcia\u2019s LIV Golf colleague Lee Westwood was stunned by the comment, posting on X: \u201cI\u2019m worried about Brandel. Someone check on him please\u201d.<\/p>\n
Asked for his own reaction, Garcia, a champion at Sawgrass in 2008, said he was hesitant to comment on other tours.<\/p>\n
Nonetheless, he added with a smile: \u201cI\u2019ll be happy to claim a second major, obviously, if that happens.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pressed on whether Australia deserves more recognition off the back of successful LIV tournaments in Adelaide, and last year\u2019s bumper Australian Open at Royal Melbourne, where Garcia featured, the Spanish great was unequivocal.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, definitely, without a doubt,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s so many places in the world that you have a great golf following. Obviously Australia is one of them. They\u2019ve shown us the excitement and how much they love the game of golf.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cI feel like this event is a great event. You have some amazing young players (with) great potential. You have some stars that have been in the game for a while. You have some that are playing at a great level like Jon (Rahm) and some others.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that the Australians should be super, super happy about what they have at the moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, I don\u2019t think they\u2019ve had a consistent field like this one year in, year out, like (LIV\u2019s) been doing for the past four years. That\u2019s nice to have.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cameron Smith on Tuesday led a chorus of discontent over LIV Golf\u2019s standing with the peak world ranking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":418469,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[14206,154570,1487,428,7614,154578,116148,154582,116152,154579,154588,154572,154586,12192,121164,154577,154564,154568,154566,8222,5904,27610,6670,121162,154589,116181,386,154567,6664,154571,154583,154573,141815,7618,154576,31578,154565,154585,154563,154584,121269,5386,15926,154575,154574,14205,101,56,54,55,154569,21269,154587,154581,30115,154580,154562],"class_list":{"0":"post-418468","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-adelaide","9":"tag-amazing-young-players","10":"tag-asia","11":"tag-australia","12":"tag-australia-and-new-zealand","13":"tag-australian-young-gun","14":"tag-brandel-chamblee","15":"tag-bumper-australian","16":"tag-cameron-smith","17":"tag-career-ambitions","18":"tag-david-puig","19":"tag-debut-event","20":"tag-decision-reaction","21":"tag-eastern-asia","22":"tag-elvis-smylie","23":"tag-finishers-world-rankings","24":"tag-format-change","25":"tag-four-round-events","26":"tag-francois-nel","27":"tag-getty-images-inc","28":"tag-golf","29":"tag-golf-channel","30":"tag-golf-news","31":"tag-golf-tournament","32":"tag-golfing-world","33":"tag-jacob-polychronis","34":"tag-japan","35":"tag-landmark-ruling","36":"tag-lee-westwood","37":"tag-lifetime-exemption","38":"tag-lucas-herbert","39":"tag-miss-putt","40":"tag-neal-shipley","41":"tag-oceania","42":"tag-peak-world-ranking","43":"tag-playoff-hole","44":"tag-positive-step","45":"tag-rankings-points","46":"tag-rival-claim","47":"tag-riyadh-golf-club","48":"tag-royal-melbourne","49":"tag-saudi-arabia","50":"tag-sergio-garcia","51":"tag-showpiece-event","52":"tag-single-way","53":"tag-south-australia","54":"tag-sports","55":"tag-uk","56":"tag-united-kingdom","57":"tag-unitedkingdom","58":"tag-unruly-crowd-behaviour","59":"tag-western-asia","60":"tag-world-ranking-body","61":"tag-world-ranking-goals","62":"tag-world-rankings","63":"tag-world-rankings-decision","64":"tag-world-rankings-points"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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