Brandel Chamblee tears into Jon Rahm over LIV Golf claim

When Jon Rahm weighed up his seismic move to LIV Golf,  the Masters champion did not understate the wider impact his £400million switch could have on the men’s professional game. 

“I could be the start of a tipping point in that sense,” the Spaniard told the BBC as he prepares to defend his title at Augusta National. “I understood the weight that decision could have and the impact it could have. I understood that perfectly and that’s why it wasn’t an easy decision.”

Rahm has also acknowledged that the “balance of golf could be disturbed a little bit” by his defection from the PGA Tour, but has also stressed that there is room for both domains in a competitive golf landscape.

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Not everyone, however, is convinced by Rahm’s inference that he could be a catalyst for change after joining the Saudi-backed breakaway league.

Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee – a vehement LIV critic – has reiterated his belief that Rahm’s decision to accept the circuit’s overtures was driven purely by greed.

“He thought his departure was gonna be the tipping point. It wasn’t the tipping point at all,” Chamblee insisted on Live at The Masters. 

“Generally speaking, I think that he went from being viewed as his own man to being somebody that could be bought. He went from being viewed as somebody who would state their principle very clearly of history and legacy, and then turns back on those principles for money and finances.

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“The thread that runs through every single aspect of life, and none of us can really say who held the money that we have in our hands before we did, but when you know exactly who is paying you and exactly what they’re paying you for and at its core is malevolent in nature, you can’t pretend that the impulse to take the money is good when it was so heavily fertilised in greed.”

Rahm, it must be stressed, has been largely unperturbed by criticism over his move.

“Well, I am a human being so to an extent you care what people think about you – but not in this case,” he told the Guardian when asked about the perceptions towards him. “I understand if somebody disagrees with me but it doesn’t really have an effect on me.

“I think it was different circumstances to a lot of other players moving. For the most part, I haven’t heard a lot of negative stuff from other players. There are always going to be people who don’t like it, who don’t approve but overall it hasn’t been much of an issue.”

The 29-year-old is aiming to become just the fourth player to successfully defend his Masters crown this week. Only Jack Nicklaus, Sir Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods have completed the rare feat of winning back-to-back Green Jackets.

Ben Parsons joined bunkered as a Content Producer in 2023 and is the man to come to for all of the latest news, across both the professional and amateur games. Formerly of The Mirror and Press Association, he is a member at Halifax Golf Club and is a long-suffering fan of both Manchester United and the Wales rugby team.