Jon Rahm ‘in negotiations’ to join LIV Golf

Masters champion Jon Rahm is understood to be ‘in negotiations’ with LIV Golf over a move to the Saudi-funded golf league.

bunkered.co.uk has learned that the Spaniard has had talks with the Greg Norman-fronted circuit but nothing has been agreed as yet.

A well-placed source told us that any talk of an imminent switch is “wide of the mark” but did add that he is “closer to joining than he has been before”.

World No.3 Rahm has regularly been linked with LIV ever since the circuit launched in early 2022. Whilst others, including Rory McIlroy, have been fiercely opposed to the new tour, Rahm has chosen not to openly condemn it, his sole criticism to date being the format of the circuit.

When a framework agreement to combine the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and LIV into a new, for-profit entity were revealed in June, Rahm was critical of PGA Tour bosses, saying: “Two minutes before the announcement came out, someone from the PGA Tour contacted me and told me everything. I thought it was a joke. This is what they should have done from the beginning. Instead, they generated division and then decided to come together again.”

Speculation that he could soon make the switch intensified when he withdrew from Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy’s new TGL venture earlier this month, saying that “right now it would require a level of commitment that I can’t offer”.

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The well-connected social media account Flushing It has, as of this morning, posted that Rahm is “in late-stage talks” to join LIV and that “the holdup is not financial, but is due to him wishing to modify the format of the league”.

The two-time major champion has strong relationships with several key figures on LIV. He and Sergio Garcia have overcome their early differences to strike up a close friendship, whilst he is also extremely close to Phil Mickelson. Indeed, Mickelson’s brother and caddie, Tim, was Rahm’s college coach.

With a space opening up on Garcia’s Fireballs GC side following Carlos Ortiz’s anticipated move to Torque GC, it has been suggested by some that Rahm could join his compatriot as a co-owner / co-captain of all-Spanish franchise that also includes rising stars Eugenio Chacarra and David Puig.

It’s also possible that, should he make the move to LIV, Rahm could be given his own team. Speaking to bunkered.co.uk earlier this year, Gary Davidson – then the interim COO of LIV – revealed that the league “could probably accommodate another three” teams.

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“There’s a couple of different ways to look at it but the number of players has to be divisible by both three and four,” Davidson told us in August. “Adding three teams would be the most logical but there’s other routes we could take if we only added, say, one or two. But we’ve always known that was a possibility.

“Put it this way, we can get to 15 teams of four and not jeopardise the shotgun start. That’s 20 three-balls. Beyond that, it gets a bit more difficult. But going up to 15 teams was something we spoke about two-and-a-half years ago. We’ve always been open-minded about that.”

From Rahm’s point of view, victory in the Masters last April means he has an exemption into all four major championships for at least the next five years.

Should he leave, his loss would likely be most keenly felt by the PGA Tour. Rahm played only two regular DP World Tour events in 2023. It would, however, pose a headache for the Ryder Cup.

Rahm has played in each of the last three editions of the match and has established himself as one of Europe’s key players. He was his side’s top-scorer in the 2021 loss at Whistling Straits and was one of only three men to go unbeaten in Rome in September.

A LIV Golf spokesperson declined to comment when approached by bunkered.co.uk for comment on this story.

Michael McEwan is the Deputy Editor of bunkered and has been part of the team since 2004. In that time, he has interviewed almost every major figure within the sport, from Jack Nicklaus, to Rory McIlroy, to Donald Trump. The host of the multi award-winning bunkered Podcast and a member of Balfron Golfing Society, Michael is the author of three books and is the 2023 PPA Scotland 'Writer of the Year' and 'Columnist of the Year'. Dislikes white belts, yellow balls and iron headcovers. Likes being drawn out of the media ballot to play Augusta National.

Deputy Editor