Reports of Jon Rahm leaving the PGA Tour to join LIV Golf loomed large on Thursday at the Grant Thornton Invitational.
With less than a month remaining until the Dec. 31 deadline for the PGA Tour and the Public Investment Fund (LIV’s backer) to settle on a deal, Rahm’s departure could be especially impactful.
Former World No. 1 players Justin Rose and Jason Day both had strong reactions to the news, citing the potentially detrimental impact of Rahm’s move for the PGA Tour.
“This is a huge part of the jigsaw puzzle that you’ve seen Jon go,”
former world No. 1 Justin Rose said to Sports Illustrated after Thursday’s pro-am at Tiburon Golf Club.
What does that mean now to the trickle if it’s Jon plus a trickle?” Initially, the framework agreement between the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour and the PIF included a clause that would prevent the poaching of players while negotiations were still underway.
“I laugh when people rumor me with LIV Golf,” Rahm said in August on the Spanish-speaking podcast Golf Sin Etiquetas. We may as well assume it’s going to happen now, because I think there’s been a lot of windows of opportunity for him to have said something different,”
Rose said.
“So, I don’t think he was careless about this decision,”
Rose said. So, it’s a big move,” Rose said.
🚨♟️ Justin Rose talked about Jon Rahm’s departure from the PGA TOUR: “We’re all trying to evaluate PGA versus LIV in the sense of the fan base and the economics around both tours, but he’s the delta. He moves the delta. He weakens one side and strengthens the other. So it’s a… pic.twitter.com/dk6mx8vbri
— NUCLR GOLF (@NUCLRGOLF) December 7, 2023
Day, whose name was also floated in recent LIV Golf rumors, was less shocked to see the report of his departure. With several close friends on the Saudi-funded league, many of whom are managed by his own agent, the Australian said he is “happy” for Rahm but wished he remained on the PGA Tour.
“If he does go, it’s gonna be sad to not see him as much because I actually like Jon a lot,” Day said. The former PGA champion admitted that if LIV had offered him an opportunity “one, two years ago,”
before he made a resurgence after his debilitating back injury, he might have taken it. This season, Day won on the PGA Tour for the first time since 2018, at the AT&T Byron Nelson.
“I think it was just based on pure speculation that typically, like in the beginning when everyone was looking at LIV, they’d be going ‘O.K., who’s older, who’s injured,’ you know what I mean?”
Day said.
Maybe if they would have come to me a year, two years ago, there might have been an opportunity for me to go because at the time with my back and everything, I was like sitting there going, ‘How much longer do I really have to play?’ Essentially the same thing as what kind of Brooks did. He was going through some injuries and everything, but I’ve been healthy and I’ve kind of come out on the other side now.
Day, like Rose, sees Rahm’s LIV deal as a “big hit” to the PGA Tour. Day also addressed speculation that Rahm’s negotiations with LIV were somehow related to the ongoing conversation between the PGA Tour and the PIF to reach a deal. If someone offered you that much, you’d play on Mars, you know what I mean?” Day said.
“So, yeah, I don’t think it has anything to do with the PIF and the PGA Tour deal or something.”
“Twenty-three-year-old Ludvig Aberg, another Ryder Cup teammate of Rahm’s, revealed that he was approached by LIV Golf “a few months ago.”
But the rookie is committed to playing on the PGA Tour.
Rickie Fowler, who has previously been open about considering a contract with LIV Golf, also said that news of Rahm’s departure would not change his own career direction.
“It doesn’t necessarily change where I’m at or anything like that,” Fowler said. I feel like we’re potentially in a good spot with the Tour as far as top players being together, I know there’s some other stuff player-related going on. Ultimately, I’m kind of always trying to make the Tour better.” “That’s a big signing,”
Rose said about Jon Rahm leaving the PGA Tour to sign with LIV Golf this week.
Rose, who lives in England, just experienced one of his greatest golf moments with Rahm, a Spaniard, as part of the winning European Ryder Cup team this fall in Rome.
Now, Rose is not sure what Rahm, ranked No. 3 in the world, leaving the tour means when it comes to a deal between the tour and Saudi’s Public Investment Fund, which finances LIV Golf.
“The players didn’t necessarily want to accept the deal and that’s been a big part of the problem and now we’re going to have to live with those consequences.”
“The next month is going to be really interesting to see how it plays out. And this is going to be a big part of the jigsaw puzzle, seeing Jon go.”
“The timeline with the deal deadline being the end of the year, it’s hard to think that will go through,”
Fowler said Thursday.
But he was not encouraged with Rahm kind of going off the grid until Thursday when he announced on Fox News that he would be joining LIV.
Rahm had opportunities before to shoot down reports he would be joining LIV for more than $300 million and an ownership stake, but the silence, Rose said, was “deafening.”
“A lot has had to happen for Jon to get to that point because I know he’s definitely one of the players that doesn’t necessarily only play golf for money,”
Rose said.
Besides, between the PGA and DP World tours, Rose has won more than $92 million in prize money. But when it comes to Rahm, an 11-time winner on the PGA Tour, including two majors, Rose wonders what he is thinking when it comes to his legacy. “I think Jon is a legacy-focused player,” Rose said.
Fans had this to say:
lol if people think people are going to like LIV more because Rahm chose the cash. Lolz.
Last I checked only a few people are why anyone watches golf.. and the biggest one is back this season.
All the best for Rahm and his family, let's not act like he was a big tv draw
— MichSays🤺 (@1hateforu) December 7, 2023
This is same attitude as Monaghan & it will make the PGA tour a minor tour once more sign up to a WORLD tour to attract fans not just ones in the US – you are not the centre of everything !!!!!
— David Ellis (@DavidEl76586758) December 7, 2023
Exactly. I like Rham but I can promise you I have never nor do I know anyone that tuned in to watch solely based on him. Tiger, Rory, Speith, JT, Rickie, Finau, Homa to name a few. Seriously what are we thinking here.
— popps (@Noles4life73) December 7, 2023
The biggest one you highlight is the reason I turned off watching. The coverage consisted of see Tiger get out of the limo see Tiger walk see Tiger talk on the range. Then we got to see 70 or so Tigers shots.
— Lenn Head (@HeadLenn) December 7, 2023
