Jon Rahm on LIV Golf contract: ‘I don’t see many ways out’
STERLING, Va. — Two-time main champion Jon Rahm mentioned he has a number of years left on his contract with LIV Golf and would not see “many ways out,” because the league makes an attempt to search out new financing after Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund introduced it’ll pull its funding after this season.
During a information convention Tuesday forward of this week’s LIV Golf event at Trump National Golf Club, Rahm additionally revealed that he has settled his long dispute with the DP World Tour over his unpaid ends for enjoying in conflicting occasions and not using a launch.
The settlement permits the previous world No. 1 to regain its eligibility to compete for the European crew in subsequent yr’s Ryder Cup.
“Right now, I have several years in my contract left,” Rahm mentioned. “I’m pretty sure they did a pretty good job when they drafted that, so I don’t see many ways out. Right now, I’m not really thinking about it because we still have a season to play and majors to compete for. It’s not something I want to think about just yet.”
Rahm, 31, is a two-time defending LIV Golf particular person champion and leads the league in factors this season with two victories and three runner-up finishes. The PIF introduced final Thursday that it will not fund LIV Golf past this season.
Rahm mentioned Tuesday that LIV golfers had been advised that there could be PIF funding for “many years.”
“Honestly, I think the initial news and the rumors about there in Mexico, since we’re in a tournament week, I almost just tried to act as if it was just rumors,” he mentioned. “Because we’re competing, I didn’t want to waste any energy on an already demanding week thinking about it.
“For me, the truth form of got here afterwards. I’d say, like everyone, [I was] stunned. Obviously, [it was] surprising. We did hear the information that there could be funding for many years. But then as the way forward for the league goes, I feel that is clearly a query for the businesspeople.”
Earlier Tuesday, LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil told reporters that the league is in the process of developing a business plan, securing golfers and then taking the league to market.
O’Neil replaced former LIV Golf CEO and commissioner Greg Norman in January 2025.
The league lured star golfers away from the PGA Tour with guaranteed contracts worth more than $100 million — Rahm reportedly received $300 million over multiple years — and purses that have now reached $30 million.
The PIF has invested more than $5 billion into the breakaway circuit since its inception in 2022, and that number will grow to more than $6 billion by season’s end.
“I knew in a short time that we had been going to must right-size this enterprise, and now we discovered ourselves in that spot,” O’Neil said.
O’Neil said he received about a dozen calls from potential investors this past weekend, including private-equity firms and other high-worth individuals.
“It’s nonetheless early,” O’Neil said. “We have not gotten to market but. We have not finalized our marketing strategy. We nonetheless are like choosing and producing, however now we have a great sense at this level, you understand, 10 days in. We know the place we’re going, and now we’re simply going to tighten the screws.”
Regardless of what happens, O’Neil said LIV Golf will not move away from its focus on team golf, which has differentiated it from other professional golf leagues around the world. He believes selling shares of LIV teams such as the Legion XIII, Crushers GC and RangeGoats GC will create the most value.
“If you ask me the place the worth of this enterprise is, it is within the groups,” O’Neil said. “If you are on the lookout for path, we consider that groups can have extraordinary worth. We consider that when we set the enterprise in the correct path, with the correct trajectory, with the correct income base and price base, which we’re nicely on our approach to doing, that these groups can have extraordinary worth.”
England’s Tyrrell Hattonone other member of Rahm’s Legion XIII crew, additionally mentioned he has a number of years left on his LIV Golf contract.
“We need to be right here,” Rahm said. “It’s been lots of enjoyable. I need to maintain competing. I need to maintain sharing a while with [my teammates]however time will inform. Obviously, I feel Scott and his crew have lots of laborious work to do.”
O’Neil said it was too early to say whether LIV Golf will have to move forward with reduced purses and fewer tournaments each season to reduce costs.
“I feel captains and crew homeowners and gamers which might be concerned within the league must, in essence, have a big majority to agree for it to work,” Rahm said. “I do consider that for the marketing strategy to vary, no matter they give you, there’ll should be some concessions on their half.”
