Jon Rahm shockingly pulls out of Tiger Woods’ TGL, prompting LIV Golf rumors

Late Wednesday all references to Jon Rahm on Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy’s TGL website had been erased. It was a strange development since Rahm was one of the earliest names associated with the indoor golf league.

Thursday morning, Rahm confirmed that he will not take part on X, formerly Twitter.

“I am sad to confirm that I will not be participating in the first TGL season,” Rahm wrote. “While I still think it’s a great opportunity, right now it would require a level of commitment that I can’t offer. Best of luck to everyone involved, and may the best team win!”

The TGL league then confirmed his departure Thursday morning, per Sports Business Journal.

“We will miss him during the inaugural TGL season,” a league spokesperson said. “We understand that players have to balance a lot of different facets of their professional and personal lives and respect Jon’s choice and wish him well.”

Any social media posts about Rahm and TGL were also deleted, which prompted some fans to run with the idea of the 28-year-old ditching the PGA Tour for LIV Golf.

The 2-time major champ is a dad to two young children. He has a number of sponsor obligations as well. Maybe this additional league would have stretched him too thin.

Then why would he originally commit if he knew it would be this time-consuming? Did he back out now for another reason?

He was pretty clear in his post as to why he made this decision. But that didn’t stop people from trying to connect dots.

Phil Mickelson hinted that there would be another wave of players to join LIV Golf, but is Rahm one of those?

Rahm and Mickelson’s agents are at the same firm, Sportfive. Lefty’s brother, Tim Mickelson, was also Rahm’s college coach at Arizona State.

The Spaniard has said in the past that he has no plans to join LIV Golf.

“I laugh when people rumor me with LIV Golf,” Rahm said earlier this year on a Spanish podcast.

“I think LIV Golf will continue, from what I understand and have talked about with their players,” Rahm said. “None of them intend to return, and for that, they left the PGA Tour. They left for a reason.”

Nevertheless, connections exist. He fought for LIV golfer Sergio Garcia to be allowed to play in the Ryder Cup and has straddled the fence to some degree all along.

TGL has yet to announce who will replace Rahm as the 24th member, but that decision will likely come soon.

The league announced Thursday morning the four players for the Boston Common Golf Club team. Rory McIlroy, Keegan Bradley, Tyrrell Hatton and Adam Scott make up the first entire team that will tee it up in 2024.

Savannah Leigh Richardson is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. You can follow her on Twitter @SportsGirlSL and Instagram @savannah_leigh_sports for more golf coverage. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough too.