Dustin Johnson On Brink Of Falling Out Top 50 For First Time In 13 Years

Dustin Johnson is set to fall out of the world's top 50 for the first time since January 2010.

The former World No.1 and two-time Major winner was one of LIV's huge signings prior to the first event near London last June, but DJ has seen his world ranking drop significantly after only playing in two Official World Golf Ranking sanctioned events since. World No.1 Rory McIlroy has played in 12, while No.3 Jon Rahm has played in 14.

His fellow American and LIV star Bryson DeChambeau has also just fallen out of the world's top 100 this week.

DJ currently ranks 50th in the world and is projected to fall outside of the top 50 following this week's tournaments according to Twitter's OWGR guru @VC606. The American has been inside the world's top 50 for over 13-consecutive years, moving inside of it at the end of January 2010.

The 2016 US Open champion and 2020 Masters winner has spent 135 weeks at World No.1, which is the third-longest spell since the ranking's inception in 1986.

“I certainly would want the best players in the world ranked accordingly," Rory McIlroy said when asked about LIV Golf's world ranking struggle last year.

"I think if Dustin Johnson is somewhere around 100th in the world it's not an accurate reflection of where he is in the game. But at the same time, you can’t make up your own rules. There’s criteria there, everyone knows what they are and if they want to pivot to meet the criteria they can. I’ve not problem with them getting World Ranking points at all but you have to meet the criteria. If you don’t it’s hard to justify why you should have them.”

Johnson was set to make his first start of the year at the Saudi International last week, where he is a two-time champion, but had to withdraw after tweaking his back.

He joined LIV for a reported fee of around $125m last year and went on to bank over $35m in winnings including the $18m individual bonus.

His opening event of 2023 will come later this month in Mexico for the start of the 14-event $405m LIV Golf League.