ed that his automatic PGA Tour suspension for joining LIV would not allow him to defend three tournaments that he had won during his domina- tion of the PGA Tour in early 2023 – the Sentry at Kapalua, the American Express at PGA West and the Genesis at Riviera. “Not being there was difficult,” he conceded sadly before recovering with the rote. “It’s a deci- sion I made, and I’m comfortable with it.” But it was not comfortable enough to keep from long- ingly adding, “but I hope I can come back.” In an interview with the BBC in April, Rahm unbiddenly lobbied his new LIV bosses to change the league’s format of 54 holes to 72 holes. “The closer we can get LIV to do some of these things, the better,” Rahm said. Most of Rahm’s 2024 golf lacked fire. Against LIV fields with a lack of depth, he played indifferently, notching two third-place finishes but staying winless in his first 10 events. He was worse in the majors, finishing T-45 at the Masters, missing the cut at the PGA Championship and withdrawing from the US Open with a foot injury. Something was clearly off. “He’s not on the cutting edge the way he was,” said commentator and former European Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley on the eve of the Open Championship at Troon.. “His performances in majors are showing that. I don’t think he’s in a happy place; he doesn’t look content on the golf course.” ONE VETERAN TOUR INSIDER I SPOKE WITH IS certain that Rahm is experiencing deep regret. “I am 100 percent positive that if Jon could give the money back to the Saudis and come back to the tour, he couldn’t write the cheque fast enough,” he says. “Now there are only four times a year when he’s playing that anybody is remotely interested. He thought his stature in the game was secure no matter where he was playing, and it was a bad miscalculation.” Indeed, Rahm was set up for greatness on the PGA Tour, having hit the time-honoured mark- ers of a superstar in the making. He had fame, the respect of his peers, the admiration of the golf world and more than $70 million in career earn- ings from the PGA Tour and DP World Tour. At 28, he had won the 2023 Masters and the 2021 US Open and had 11 PGA Tour wins to go with eight on the DP World Tour. He had been World No 1 for 52 weeks. His big game and superb touch were accompanied by a love for competition fuelled in part by appreciation for golf history and where he could fit into it. Rahm said his perspective on entreaties from LIV changed after June 6, 2023, when the PGA Tour signalled it would be willing to work with PIF on a “framework agreement.” “That opened the door for me to do the same thing,” he told the BBC
When Jon Rahm signed with LIV Golf for an estimated half a billion dollars last December, he made the smart play. Rahm became the second highest-paid athlete in the world (behind soccer’s Cristiano Ronaldo) with enough money to take care of future genera- tions of his growing family. It also appeared as if he would soon regain the opportunity he had sacrificed by defecting to LIV – regularly compet- ing against the best fields in golf. Rahm’s soulful drive to be the best is what had made the 29-year-old Spaniard a commanding and compelling figure. However, smart alone can be soulless, which is why the move rang off key. Rahm had built his reputation on the historical continuum provided by the PGA Tour, to which he had emphatically declared fealty. He had rhetori- cally asked, “Would our lifestyle change if we got $400 million?” and immediately answered, “No.” When he reversed field with his announcement – while wearing a LIV letter jacket – it caused a whiplash from which the golf world still reels. By putting money ahead of what had always felt like an uncompromising pursuit of greatness, Rahm, at a decisive moment for the professional game, had done what the modern giants – Palmer, Nicklaus, Woods – had declined to do. The thought occurred to many that Rahm represented a rap- idly encroaching era of selfishness and a turning point away from the examples of great players of the past. That image, with all the contradictions and con- sequences of his decision, weighed on Rahm, who lost his unshakable veneer when he began playing in LIV events early this year. It was a change remi- niscent of Phil Mickelson’s awkwardly diminished persona when he first appeared in public after shaking up the world with his own stunning – and personally devastating – defection to LIV. Right away, Rahm made comments that seemed nostalgic for the PGA Tour. In March he lament-
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