Rahm was asked what changed. He copped to the money enticing him, but also cited LIV’s “innovation” and team format. He was not asked the same sticky questions that his predecessors faced. No queries about human rights, or sportswashing or slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi. No longer did journalists address him with judgment and combativeness. Rahm’s Tour peers, who might rightfully feel abandoned by him, also seemed disinclined to jab him.
Several pros spoke Thursday to the sadness they felt about the growing chasm in pro golf, but none publicly put Rahm on blast. Even Rory McIlroy, who through the tensest days of LIV’s formation carried the torch for the Tour, sounded resigned to pro golf’s new reality. “It’s hard to sit here and criticize Jon because of what a great player he is and the experiences I’ve had with him,” McIlroy said in an interview with Jamie Weir of Sky Sports earlier this week. McIlroy went as far as to say that the DP World Tour should change its Ryder Cup eligibility rules so Rahm can play for Europe at Bethpage in 2025.
He added: “You can’t judge someone for making a decision that they feel is the best thing for them. Is it disappointing to me? Yes. But the landscape of golf changed on June 6, whenever the framework agreement was announced. Because of that, it made the jump from the PGA Tour to LIV a little bit easier for guys. They let the first guys take the heat. This framework agreement legitimizes what LIV is trying to do.”
McIlroy’s right. Even in the unlikely scenario that the framework agreement disintegrates, the Tour already has shown its cards: It’s OK to do business with LIV and Saudi Arabia. For players who have been sitting on the fence about joining LIV, the Tour’s dealings might be the push they’ve needed. And now with Rahm coming aboard, antsy Tour players likely will feel even more emboldened to make a move. However you feel about LIV’s backers, the stable they have gathered — Rahm, Koepka, Cam, Bryson, DJ, Phil, Niemann, Reed, Mito, Gooch, et al. — is formidable.
And yet — and this is a big qualifier — even with all that positive momentum, LIV still faces a deeply inconvenient truth: no matter how many stars it signs, its tournaments remain largely unwatchable. This is not only your correspondent’s opinion; it is the belief of golf fans, who thus far have been disinclined to tune into LIV broadcasts, according to what limited TV ratings have been made available.
Will that change with Rahm’s arrival? Doubtful. But what if more players come over? Might there be a tipping point? Rahm soon will have a team to fill out, and it’s hard to imagine him populating it with has-beens. Beyond those vacancies, LIV says it also has room to add one more team. That means that we potentially could see seven more players following Rahm to LIV. Which players? You don’t need to follow the game that closely to have heard the whispers.
“There are rumors out there,” Justin Rose told Golf Channel Thursday, ”and I’ve spoken to some of the named rumors and they’re playing it very straight — they do seem like rumors. But I don’t know where the truth lies.”
These days, no one does. Even uber-knowledgable and plugged-in McIlroy, who just a month ago said he had spoken to Rahm and “would be very, very surprised” if he signed with LIV, adding, “I’m pretty confident Jon is a PGA Tour player.”
This is pro golf’s new paradigm: No one seems to know much of anything with any certainty. We are now just 23 days from the Tour’s stated deadline to announce whether its partnership with LIV’s funders, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, will move forward, and the players still seem in the dark about what’s going to happen. That Rahm would leave the Tour in the eleventh hour of those talks is curious. It could be a sign that the negotiations are not going well, and Rahm is cutting bait as a shin-kick to a Tour that he and many other players feel betrayed him. Or conversely, it could be an indication that the deal is progressing and LIV players soon will not face many of the restrictions by which they now are bound — so why not take the money and run?
However things shake out, Rahm’s decision will go a long way in destigmatizing LIV, and another wave of defections seems imminent.
