Cameron Smith led a chorus of dissatisfaction with LIV Golf’s position at the top world rankings body on Tuesday, saying the landmark OWGR ruling was only a positive step short of full justice.

Speaking at The Grange ahead of LIV Golf’s marquee event in Adelaide this week, some of the Rebel Tour’s stars responded to calls to only award points to players in the top 10 of the world rankings.

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The decision moves Elvis Smiley, who won last week in Riyadh, from 134th to 77th in the world, and second-place finisher Jon Rahm from 97th to 67th.

However, OWGR’s decision ignores LIV finishers from 11th to 57th, and the points awarded are only a fraction of those earned in full-field events on the PGA Tour.

So Smith, a former world No. 2 and currently No. 227, lamented that even though LIV Golf is in its fifth season and has expanded to a four-round tournament, it has yet to achieve full recognition.

“It’s been a long time coming, so it’s nice to get that kind of recognition. It’s very tough out there and I don’t think you get the respect that you deserve sometimes from the golf world because of the nature of the game and the way you play,” Smith said.

“While this is a work in progress, I still think it’s a step in the right direction.”

Noting Smiley’s impressive debut victory over Rahm, he added, “It’s a shame the golf world doesn’t appreciate him the same way I do.”

“I think it was a great performance and he held off probably one of the best golfers of our generation to win a golf tournament.

“Unfortunately, that’s the situation. I think we’ve earned the places and things are getting better.”

It was clear from interviews in Adelaide on Tuesday that widespread anxiety remains.

Despite the improvement, Smith was not the only player to express some degree of dissatisfaction with the state of play in the world rankings during warm-up days.

The former Open Champion was supported by Ripper GC teammate Lucas Herbert, who slammed OWGR’s credibility with some strong words.

Herbert, once ranked 40th in the world and currently ranked 223rd, said he hadn’t even visited the OWGR website in two years until last week.

“Ultimately, I think the goal of this system is to rank the best golfers in the world,” he began. “And if they’re going to put Cam Smith outside of the top 100, I don’t know if that’s necessarily a fair system.

“After I went to LIV, I think I was much less concerned about where I was ranked. And, to be honest, where other people were ranked. It just seemed like I wasn’t doing it in the best way.”

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Still, even with attacks on its credibility, interest in seeking more OWGR points clearly remains high for some LIV stars.

Smiley, a young Australian cannon who was in the spotlight last week in his debut LIV season, has made it no secret that his career ambitions hinge heavily on playing in the majors.

And thanks to his 57th place jump in Riyadh, he’s very close to qualifying for this year’s Masters, needing to finish inside the top 50, so he’ll get a taste of it.

Regarding his world ranking goals, he said:

“It’s great to be recognized. At the end of the day, good golf takes care of itself, so I’ll try to win a few more times and ultimately the Masters is on my mind right now.

“That’s a conversation that I can start and it’s going to add fuel to the fire for me. So we’ll see what happens in the next few weeks.”

“It can be very hurtful.”

Earlier, former Masters champion Sergio Garcia weighed in, saying the league’s qualification still “feels unfair”.

“This is definitely a step forward,” Garcia said.

“Is that fair? I guess time will tell. I don’t think it’s completely fair…

“When one of us is winning, obviously that guy is going to jump, and that’s great. But every time you’re 11th or lower, you’re going to get a zero and have an additional event on the divisor. So that… can be a huge blow.”

“That’s a positive thing. At the end of the day, I think this will help some of the kids who performed well move up the rankings. Hopefully they play really well,” he added.

“But unfortunately, only 10 people can make it into the top 10. It would be great if it was expanded a bit more, as I think it probably should be. But hopefully it will happen soon.”

Garcia is ranked 369th in the world and at one point was ranked as high as No. 2, but as the 2017 Masters champion he received a permanent exemption from Augusta.

The Spaniard previously accused OWGR ranking points of being irrelevant for the majority of LIV players, considering that many of them have fallen significantly.

It’s worth noting that his exemption periods in the other three majors have ended.

After nearly four years, the main change in which OWGR finally recognized LIV golf was the decision to change the event from three rounds to four rounds.

The move has caused a stir on tour after star rookie Bryson DeChambeau made cryptic comments last week that players weren’t in the terms they “signed up for.”

His comments come amid the shocking departures of Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed from the tour.

Taylor Gooch dismissed concerns that more players would leave, saying “everyone” he spoke to was “over the moon” to be on the LIV Tour.

“I think this place will continue to become more and more attractive to people as things soften in terms of world rankings and majors and all of those things and the ecosystem slowly but surely starts to accept us,” he said.

“Everyone’s excited. There’s obviously some frustration that we didn’t get the whole pie. But, you know, at least we got some pie, so let’s keep trying to get more pie.”

However, Garcia was less than enthusiastic about the change to a four-round tournament.

He called the shift “okay,” but added another complaint.

“When it comes to preparation, it obviously takes an extra day, so it lengthens the weeks a little bit,” he says.

“When you travel abroad a lot, it can be a little difficult to get there with enough time to prepare as you would like.

“But we know what it’s like because we’ve been doing it all our lives. But it’s good. It’s okay.”

However, Fireballs teammate David Puig was more positive about the shift, saying it could allow the cream players on the field to rise to the top.

“Personally, I think it’s definitely better for the better players that week because they need to perform even better one day to actually win the tournament or finish in the top spot,” Puig said.

“I think the first round was really important because it was a three-day event. If we had a good start, we obviously had a chance to win, but there was no guarantee we would finish high. But obviously we could easily have finished quite high.”

“On the other hand, if you do pretty bad in the first round, you’re kind of fighting for the next two days to break into the top 10 or top 15. I think that’s fairer and better.”

“I’ll have another one.”

Meanwhile, Garcia was asked for his thoughts on the emerging commentary that the PGA Tour’s Players Championship is the world’s “fifth major” and how it stacks up with similar claims that Australia deserves its own elevated event.

This week, Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee caused a stir when he said the Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass might be the greatest tournament in the world.

“In every measure of whether something is a major or not, The Players to me is not just a major, it stands alone above the other four major championships. In my assessment, it’s the best major,” he said.

Garcia’s LIV golf colleague Lee Westwood was stunned by the comment, writing on X: “I’m worried about Blundell. Someone please check on him.”

Asked about his reaction to winning at Sawgrass in 2008, Garcia said he was hesitant to comment on other tours.

Nevertheless, he added with a smile: “Of course, if that happens, I would be happy to win a second major title.”

Spain’s greatness was clear when asked whether Australia deserved more recognition thanks to the success of the LIV tournament in Adelaide and last year’s successful Australian Open at Royal Melbourne, where Garcia played.

“I mean, definitely, definitely,” he said.

“There are many places in the world with great golf enthusiasts and Australia is clearly one of them. They showed us the excitement of golf and how much they love the game.”

He added: “I feel this is a great event. We have some great young players with great potential. We have some star players who have been playing for a while. We have some players who are playing at a great level, like Jon (Rahm) and others. They are playing at a great level. They are great players.”

“I think Australians should be very, very happy with what they have at the moment.

“Unfortunately, I don’t think (LIV) will ever have such a consistent field every year like they have for the past four years. That would be great.”