Jon Rahm joins LIV Golf, leaving behind PGA Tour and his sincerity
Rahm, one of the best players on the planet, and a PGA Tour stalwart, is joining the Saudi-backed LIV Golf in 2024.
The move alters the professional golfing landscape forever, as the Saudi-backed circuit will now employ the third-ranked player in the world, the defending Masters champion, and a generational talent in Rahm.
He announced the decision publicly on Fox News Thursday evening.
“Obviously the past two years there’s been a lot of evolving on the game of golf, things have changed a lot and so have I,” Rahm said in a call with reporters. “Seeing the growth of LIV Golf, seeing the evolution of LIV Golf and innovation is something that has really captured my attention.
It would certainly be enlightening to find out exactly what growth Rahm is talking about; beside the gargantuan one in his bank account of course.
This move likely gives the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF)—LIV’s beneficiary—bargaining power in its ongoing negotiations with the PGA Tour. The two sides have until Dec. 31, 2023, to strike a formal agreement to unite golf’s power brokers and end the schism that has vociferously divided the sport for the past couple of years.
The PIF, which has over $700 billion in assets, will give Rahm close to $550 million to join the league.
Since LIV’s launch, Rahm has vehemently supported the PGA Tour and has said on multiple occasions that his loyalty lies there.
“I laugh when people rumor me with LIV Golf,” Rahm said in August on Golf Sin Etiquetas, a Spanish golf podcast.
“I’ve never liked the format. And I always have a good time with Phil Mickelson and Sergio Garcia in the practice rounds of majors... Phil respects my decision, and I respect his [choice]. Mickelson has told me that I have no reason to go play for LIV, and he has told me that multiple times.”
Consider what he said at the 2022 U.S. Open at the Country Club at Brookline, where he arrived as the defending champion:
“I’ve never really played the game of golf for monetary reasons,” Rahm said in Massachusetts.
“I have always been interested in history and legacy, and right now the PGA Tour has that. There’s a meaning when you win the Memorial Championship. There’s a meaning when you win Arnold Palmer’s event at Bay Hill. There’s a meaning when you win [Los Angeles], Torrey [Pines], some of these historic venues. That to me matters a lot.”
But clearly things changed over the past few months, as numerous signs pointed in this direction.
He first pulled out of Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy’s TGL league, and then, most recently, was not listed within the field of next month’s The American Express, a tournament he won on the PGA Tour in January 2023. The PGA Tour insists on defending champions playing in the event the following year unless an injury—or a defection to LIV—occurs.
Rahm also has a strong relationship with Mickelson and Garcia, which he alluded to in August. These two players have been with LIV Golf from the onset. Perhaps their mentorship of Rahm influenced his decision even more.
Regardless, Rahm will now tee it up with LIV Golf, an instance that must make PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan feel queasy, as the tour has lost one of its greatest assets and one of its best players.
Ultimately, this move is one of the most monumental moments within the sport, perhaps shifting the bargaining power towards the PIF and away from the PGA Tour. How the agreement shapes out from here remains to be seen, but it will be an interesting few weeks, to say the least.
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko for more golf coverage. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough too.
