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The 29-year-old won his first major at St
Andrews in July and also claimed the Players Championship to
rise to world number two, before becoming the highest-ranked
player to switch to the lucrative circuit.
The Australian is now at number four but other top players who
have switched to LIV have plummeted down the rankings.
Former world number one Dustin Johnson, LIV's individual
champion in 2022, has dropped to 46th while 2020 U.S. Open
winner Bryson DeChambeau barely scrapes inside the top 100, the
American slipping to 96th.
LIV Golf submitted an application to the Official World Golf
Ranking (OWGR) board last July but no decision has been
announced.
"For sure, it hurts," Smith said on Wednesday. "I feel as though
I was really close to getting to No. 1, and that was definitely
something I wanted to tick off.
"I think when you rock up at a tournament, you know who you have
to beat, whether there is a world ranking or not. There are
generally seven-eight guys that are in that field that you know
are going to put up a pretty good fight.
"However, the longer this stuff goes on, I think the more
obsolete those rankings become. Do we need them? It would be
nice, but you know who you've got to beat when you get on the
golf course."
Critics say LIV Golf, which is bankrolled by the Saudi Arabia
Public Investment Fund, amounts to blatant "sportswashing" by a
nation trying to improve its reputation tarnished by a history
of human rights abuses.
Smith will headline a field stacked with LIV golfers at the
Asian Tour's season-opening Saudi International, which tees off
on Thursday, with Johnson, DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka and Phil
Mickelson all set to compete.
(Reporting by Hritika Sharma in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter
Rutherford)
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