Dustin Johnson faces career low, drops outside top 200 in World Golf Ranking on the eve of 2024 LIV Golf season

Dustin Johnson has never been ranked this low. The star golfer has slipped outside the top 200 for the first time in his career. That's not a fun way to start the new season, but the LIV Golf season is right around the corner.

This isn't a massive surprise, given the circumstances, even if Johnson is a former World No. 1 and has spent almost three years at the summit of the rankings. LIV doesn't get OWGR points and so all his competition does nothing for his rank.

Meanwhile, others around or behind him on the leaderboard do get some points. Even if they don't do well, they usually garner enough to get up a spot or two and push the LIV star further down the board.

That's resulted in a slide that can't really be stopped. The only events that LIV Golf members can play in that do get points are the Majors, and Johnson didn't fare well in them last year.

In The Masters, he finished eight over and was T48. That won't do much for his overall ranking. In the PGA Championship, he was nine over and finished T58. That also won't cut it.

At the U.S. Open, Johnson finished three under for a T10 finish, which did give him some momentum to slide back up the world ranking list. Unfortunately, he was 13 over and missed the cut at the Open Championship, which kind of undid all his work.

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LIV Golf slides like Dustin Johnson's won't end soon

Dustin Johnson's slide will continue until he plays in a major championship and does well, and that's if he's a member of the field. LIV players can make the field, but they're not guaranteed a spot.

Johnson, since he has won several and has a few exemptions, shouldn't be at risk of that, but he's not in the best position to qualify.

Dustin Johnson has slid down the world rankings

Ultimately, LIV events, which Johnson routinely does pretty well in, do not help. They don't get points at all. The tour recently asked OWGR to reconsider this, but they couldn't do anything about it.

OWGR chairman Peter Dawson said they couldn't find a way to make it work. He said via Golf Magic:

"We are not at war with them. This decision not to make them eligible is not political. It is entirely technical. LIV players are self-evidently good enough to be ranked. They're just not playing in a format where they can be ranked equitably with the other 24 tours and thousands of players trying to compete on them."

It's something a lot of golfers want. Cameron Smith has said that when he defected - as World No. 3 - he wasn't too pleased that he'd effectively never be able to make it to World No. 1 since LIV didn't get points.

That's still the case, which means Jon Rahm won't ever reach OWGR No. 1 again in all likelihood either. These golfers will slide like Johnson has, and they'll all need to perform in the Majors to stop the downfall.