In the meticulously calculated world of professional golf, where every drive, putt, and bunker escape is quantified, the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) is supposed to be the ultimate arbiter of talent, a definitive measure of who stands atop the sport’s hierarchy.
Yet, as Justin Thomas, currently perched at No. 4 in the OWGR as of July 2025, continues to bask in the glow of a lofty ranking, a glaring question emerges: How can a golfer perform so poorly in the tournaments that matter most — the four majors — and still claim to be the fourth-best player on the planet?
The answer, critics argue, lies in a fundamentally flawed OWGR system that rewards consistency in lesser events while glossing over failures on golf’s grandest stages.
The OWGR’s farce deepens with its decision to award points to something called the Farmfoods Tartan Pro Tour, a 54-hole developmental circuit in Scotland, while denying LIV Golf, the world’s second-best tour packed with golf’s biggest names. Thomas’ inflated ranking, propped up by a biased system and media double standards, marks him as golf’s most overrated star.
The majors are golf’s crucible, the only tournaments where legacies are forged and greatness is measured. They draw the deepest fields, the toughest courses, and the most intense scrutiny.
For all the critics who call LIV Golf events “exhibitions,” well, so are the tournaments that comprise the PGA Tour schedule. They’re all exhibitions — some more important than others, but still exhibitions. They are a way for tour pros to earn a living while prepping for the season’s big four events.
For fans and purists, majors are the yardstick of a golfer’s mettle. Yet, Thomas’ recent major performances paint a pathetic picture that belies his elite ranking (same goes for fellow top-10 stars Sepp Straka, Russell Henley, Keegan Bradley, and Ludvig Aberg — more on them later).
At the Masters, Thomas limped to a T36 finish, undone by a third-round 76 that saw him plummet down the leaderboard. The PGA Championship, a tournament he won in 2017 and 2022, was even worse, a missed cut after rounds of 71 and 74, had him packing his bags before the weekend in North Carolina.
The U.S. Open offered no redemption; Thomas shot back-to-back rounds of 76 and missed another cut. In 13 majors since his 2022 PGA Championship victory, Thomas has missed a mind-blowing seven cuts accompanied by just a single top-30 finish (T8, 2024 PGA) — a cumulative showing that screams underachievement for a supposed top-5 talent.
Contrast this with the plight of LIV Golf players, who operate under a punishing OWGR reality. Since LIV events are not recognized by the OWGR, their players — many of whom are among the game’s elite — rely solely on major performances to earn ranking points.
For instance, take Jon Rahm, despite three top-15 major finishes, including two top-10s, the Spaniard languishes outside the top 50 in the OWGR due to LIV’s exclusion.
If Thomas were held to the same standard as Rahm, where only his major performances counted, he’d be a nobody in the rankings, likely buried beyond the top 300.
The OWGR’s refusal to award points for LIV events, while simultaneously inflating Thomas’ ranking through PGA Tour “exhibitions,” exposes a double standard that undermines the system’s credibility. As Thomas himself remarked in 2022, LIV players knew the consequences of their choice, but his lack of sympathy rings hollow when his own ranking benefits from a structure that punishes others unfairly.
Thomas’ defenders point to his 2025 PGA Tour season as evidence of his worthiness. A victory at the RBC Heritage, three runner-up finishes, and three additional top-10s have propelled him to fifth in the FedEx Cup standings with over $9.3 million in earnings (thank you, Greg Norman).
These stats, they argue, justify his world No. 4 ranking. But this argument sidesteps the core issue: the OWGR overvalues PGA Tour events like the RBC Heritage, which lack the depth and pressure of majors. A win at Harbour Town, where Thomas thrived on a Pete Dye track that suits his precision iron game, carries disproportionate weight compared to a missed cut at Oakmont or Troon.
The OWGR’s formula, which awards points based on field strength and event status, fails to score the majors adequately, allowing players like Thomas to rack up points in “Tour” shootouts while slipping away unscathed when flopping amid the highest of stakes.
The historical context only deepens the critique. Thomas, now 32, has 16 career wins, including two major titles, both PGA Championships (2017, 2022). But the bulk of those wins (13) came in a five-season span (2016-20). For the next (nearly) five Tour seasons (2021-25), which should have been Thomas’ prime era (age 27-32), the Kentucky native has won just three times — a precipitous drop off, while his major record has been absolutely atrocious, even when including a miracle victory at Southern Hills.
In 19 major starts since 2021, where most of the time he entered as a top-10 ranked player and top-10 betting favorite, Thomas has missed the cut a whopping eight times while finishing outside the top 30 six additional times. In short, he’s missed the cut in more than 40% of his major starts while finishing outside the top 30 about three-quarters of the time.
If majors were the sole criterion, as they are for LIV players, Thomas’s ranking would collapse, exposing the hollowness of his current standing.
The OWGR’s defenders argue that it’s designed to reward sustained excellence across a two-year rolling window, not just major performances. But this logic crumbles when the system elevates a player like Thomas, whose major struggles are glaring, over those who shine on golf’s biggest stages but are penalized for their tour affiliation. The OWGR’s refusal to adapt to LIV Golf has created a distorted hierarchy that misleads fans and undermines the sport’s integrity.
Thomas’s No. 4 ranking isn’t just an anomaly; it’s a symptom of a broken system that values the wrong metrics. For instance, of the OWGR’s top-10 ranked players, only Scottie Scheffler has more than one top-10 result in the season’s three majors. Sepp Straka, ranked No. 9, has missed all three major cuts, a shocking statistic that is rarely discussed on the PGA Tour-friendly Golf Channel. (Can you imagine if it were Rahm who missed all three cuts? Brandel Chamblee would be on Golf Channel faster than you can say “LIV traitor,” crowing that it proves LIV has ruined a once-great talent.)
Meanwhile, Russell Henley (No. 6) and Ludvig Aberg (No. 10) match Thomas with two missed cuts each while Xander Schauffele (No. 3), Collin Morikawa (No. 5), and Keegan Bradley (No. 7) have each managed just one top-10, with missed cuts and middling finishes littering their resumes. Rory McIlroy (No. 2) and J.J. Spaun (No. 8) are the other 2025 major winners but aside from their wins neither has an additional top-10 result.
Yet, two of LIV Golf’s biggest stars, Rahm (T7, T8) and Bryson DeChambeau (T5, T2), have each produced a pair of top-10s in 2025. Further, four LIV golfers (Rahm, DeChambeau, Tyrrell Hatton, and Patrick Reed) have earned more OWGR points in the three majors than seven of the top-10 ranked players, while a fifth (Joaquin Niemann) has earned more than five, including world No. 4 Thomas.
LIV Stars vs OWGR Top 10
Major Pts Rank. Player (OWGR Pos): Masters, PGA, US Open (OWGR Pts)
1. Scheffler (1st): 4, 1, T7 (146.3)
2. McIlroy (2nd): 1, T47, T19 (109.4)
3. Spaun (8th): 50, T37, 1 (106.2)
4. DeChambeau (15th): T5, T2, MC (65.3)
5. Reed (57th): 3, MC, T23 (45.0)
6. Rahm (63rd): T14, T8, T7 (37.0)
7. Hatton (22nd): T14, T60, T4 (34.6)
8. Schauffele (3rd): T8, T28, T12 (28.7)
9. Aberg (10th): 7, MC, MC (18.0)
10. Niemann (86th): T29, T8, MC (16.7)
11. Bradley (7th): MC, T8, T33 (16.2)
12. Morikawa (5th): T14, T50, T23 (15.8)
13. Henley (6th): MC, MC, T10 (13.5)
14. Thomas (4th): T36, MC, MC (3.7)
15. Straka (9th): MC, MC, MC (0.0)
This collective failure underscores a critical flaw: the OWGR rewards PGA Tour consistency in lesser events while whitewashing their major meltdowns.
Signature Events, with their massive points, limited fields, including the exclusion of LIV players, are OWGR goldmines, even if they lack the depth of a major. Thomas’ Heritage win, Straka’s Truist title, Bradley’s New England victory, Aberg’s Genesis title, and Henley’s win at Bay Hill propelled each of them into the OWGR’s top-10, despite collectively failing in the majors. Meanwhile, LIV’s OWGR exclusion ensures Niemann’s wins count for nothing, and Rahm and DeChambeau’s major heroics barely dent the rankings.
In the OWGR’s warped math, a major missed cut is a gentle zero, like a participation trophy for showing up. Penalize those flops with raw point deductions and watch those lofty rankings take a well-deserved dive.
The hypocrisy, though, peaks with the media’s treatment of LIV’s youngest superstar: Niemann, a two-time LIV winner in 2025, who has dazzled with his ball-striking and consistency, ranking No. 1 in LIV’s points race. Yet, his mediocre major record — T29, T8, MC — draws relentless criticism from PGA Tour media allies, who argue it proves LIV’s 54-hole, no-cut format isn’t “real golf.”
“Niemann can’t handle the pressure of majors,” they claim, ignoring that Thomas, Straka, Aberg, Henley, Bradley and Hideki Matsuyama — six of the PGA Tour’s Signature event winners — have all fared worse than Niemann across the same three events.
Niemann vs PGAT Signature Winners
Player (OWGR): Masters, PGA, US Open
Niemann (86th): T29, T8, MC
Thomas (4th): T36, MC, MC
Henley (6th): MC, MC, T10
Bradley (7th): MC, T8, T33
Straka (8th): MC, MC, MC
Aberg (10th): 7, MC, MC
Matsuyama (11th): T21, MC, T42
Thomas’s major futility is far worse than Niemann’s, yet he’s No. 4, while Niemann, not even in the OWGR’s top 75, is dismissed as a pretender. The double standard is glaring: Niemann’s major struggles are evidence of LIV’s inferiority, but PGA Tour star failures are swept under the rug, with their Signature event triumphs framed as proof of greatness.
For Thomas, the controversy is nothing new. In 2022, he bristled at dropping to No. 8, saying it “p*ssed me off” because he felt his star shown brighter. Today, at No. 4, he’s riding high, but the irony is palpable: a ranking he once felt insulted by now overrates him egregiously.
Thomas’ 2025 resurgence on Tour, while impressive, doesn’t erase the fact that in the tournaments that define greatness, he’s been a total non-factor.
If the OWGR is to regain credibility, it must end the blackballing of LIV Golf, and prioritize the majors above all else, even if it results in the toppling of pretenders like Thomas from their undeserved perch.
As the golf world looks ahead to the Open Championship in Northern Ireland, Thomas has a chance to silence his critics. But until he proves he can contend at Augusta, Shinnecock Hills, or even Royal Portrush this month, his No. 4 ranking will remain a glaring indictment of the OWGR’s flaws — a system that crowns kings who falter when the crown matters most.
