PGA Championship: Jon Rahm focuses on his game, not LIV Golf’s tenuous future [opinion]

NEWTOWN SQUARE – Jon Rahm acknowledged Tuesday that he wants to become the first Spaniard to win the PGA Championship.

That might be difficult this week at Aronimink Golf Club considering his uncertain future with LIV Golf, which has announced that it is no longer being funded by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.

“Yeah, it is something we’ve had to deal with, obviously,” Rahm said, “but there are just some things that are out of my control. Out of the few talents I have in my life, fixing a business is not one of them. I might be the worst person for that.

“My job is to play golf. Luckily, I’m decent at it.”

Don’t feel sorry for him.

Rahm has won two majors, the 2021 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines and the 2023 Masters. They’re the main reasons why LIV made him its highest-paid golfer in late 2023, luring him away from the PGA Tour with a contract worth at least $300 million.

Reports suggested that he was paid a massive amount of money up front, which was a good thing for him considering LIV’s shaky financial situation.

Saudi Arabia spent $5 billion on LIV to diversify its economy, increase tourism and, its critics would say, enhance its image through “sportswashing” to offset criticisms of human rights abuses. And now, because they didn’t see a return on their investment, among other reasons, they’re out.

When Rahm left the PGA Tour for LIV, he expressed the hope that the two groups would merge.

“I was never thinking that I was going to be any sort of weight that would tip the scales to make things come together,” he said. “That was never an argument in my mind. When asked if that was the case for people to come together, that would be great.”

Rahm wasn’t the only prominent player to think it would be best to merge. Two-time Masters and PGA champion Rory McIlroy thought so a few years ago.

“I’m glad I was wrong,” McIlroy said Tuesday. “I can admit when I’m wrong, and that was one that I did get wrong. I think it was always a possibility.

“Look, with everything that’s happening in the Middle East (the war in Iran), that had a lot to do with it. Whenever you have funding tied so much to the geopolitical landscape in the world, that’s a tricky road to navigate.”

There were times when McIlroy carried the weight of the PGA Tour on his shoulders in its fight against LIV. It affected his game. But when the PGA Tour set an expensive path for LIV golfers to return earlier this year, McIlroy was “very happy” that Brooks Koepka accepted those terms.

Koepka paid $5 million and forfeited five years of participation in the Player Equity Program, which PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp estimated would be a $50 million loss.

Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau, Cam Smith and others decided not to do the same. Now their professional futures are up in the air. With LIV, they’re drawing very few in-person fans and very small television ratings.