Pro claims Jay Monahan mistake led to Jon Rahm joining LIV

There are only two LIV Golf events left this season, meaning attention will soon turn towards another winter of change on the breakaway league.

With players out of contract and relegations looming, it’s anticipated that Greg Norman will target more big name signings ahead of the 2025 campaign.

Whether LIV can attract players with the calibre of Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton for their fourth season remains to be seen, however.

Speaking on the latest episode of The Chipping Forecast, Eddie Pepperell pointed out that many of these deals are likely to hinge on the outcome of the ongoing talks between LIV’s benefactors – the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF) – and the Tour, which is still shrouded in uncertainty.

The PGA Tour continues to elevate prize purses and bonus pools in a bid to stop LIV poaching more of their star players, and Pepperell believes that should be enough to block the threat of the rival circuit.

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“The PGA Tour have combated that with some of their own initiatives to make their own players wealthier,” the DP World Tour player said. “You would think that’s going to stop them going across by and large. Its going to be interesting to see if they sign any so-called big players but, of course, there might be some players like Adrian Meronk, that type of stature who might go across.

“Its difficult to know until there’s this agreement and all these ongoing discussions.. You listen to [PGA Tour Comissioner] Jay Monahan, read between the lines, read next year’s schedule and look at what he’s saying. To me it doesn’t suggest there’s really anything that’s been fully agreed.”

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Pepperell – like many in golf circles – has been unconvinced by Monahan’s handling of the “framework agreement” that was supposed to signify unity in the sport’s corridors of power.

The Englishman thinks the rhetoric used to describe the possibility of a merger with PIF was optimistic and ultimately enabled the likes of Rahm and Hatton to defect to LIV with the assumption that the game’s great divide was coming to an end.

“I was thinking about this earlier… I just think the language that was used in hindsight by Jay Monahan was wrong,” Pepperell added. “To call it a framework agreement I think suggested something that really wasn’t there.

“I don’t think it was much of an agreement at all. Really all that was agreed was to stop suing one another. Out of that language came Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton, players like that looking and thinking ‘oh, something’s in the pipeline’.

“I wonder if they regret using the language they used. It’s going to be interesting to see.”