Jon Rahm claiming at the 2024 PGA Championship that he still supported the PGA Tour despite his move to LIV Golf did not go down at all well.
It does appear that Rahm’s days with LIV could be numbered.
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Of course, there are serious doubts over whether LIV will even be able to continue into 2027 despite Scott O’Neil claiming that an agreement is in place with an investor.
LIV reportedly expect Rahm to leave this winter. With that, it will be very interesting to see where he ends up next season having snubbed the chance to return to the PGA Tour earlier this year.
What Jon Rahm said about the PGA Tour ahead of the PGA Championship in 2024
Rahm’s move to LIV in December 2023 threatened to be a turning point in the game’s civil war. The PGA Tour had weathered the initial storm caused by Greg Norman and Phil Mickelson.
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But losing Rahm felt seismic. The Spaniard had an opportunity to see LIV in action and decided that was the place for him, despite previously pledging his allegiance to the PGA Tour.
Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images
Rahm himself attempted to downplay the significance of his move. Speaking to the media ahead of the 2024 PGA Championship at Valhalla, he took exception with the idea that he was somehow now against the PGA Tour.
“See you guys keep saying ‘the other side’ but I’m still a PGA Tour member, whether suspended or not. I still want to support the PGA Tour. And I think that’s an important distinction to make,” he claimed.
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“I don’t feel like I’m on the other side. I’m just not playing there. That’s at least personally.”
Rahm’s comments angered former PGA Tour player Arron Oberholser
Rahm has never engaged with the war of words, regardless of what side he has been on. So it is not surprising that he attempted to stay neutral.
Unfortunately, those comments were not well received.
Speaking on the Golf Channel afterwards, in comments reported by Golf.com, Arron Oberholser did not hold back.
“He doesn’t get it,” he said. “To this day, he doesn’t get it. And this is a guy who wanted a position or wanted to be heard, from what I understand. Either a board position, policy board. He wanted to be heard on this whole thing before he went to LIV. And I feel like he wasn’t as heard as much as he probably should have been.
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“And now I’m glad he wasn’t in that position because he doesn’t get it. As a PGA Tour player and as a PGA Tour member – Still, a card-carrying PGA Tour member – and someone who supports the PGA Tour, [who is] not happy with what’s going on right now, obviously, but supports the PGA Tour, I’m incensed by that, quite honestly.
“By the level of, to your point, of naivety that you don’t get it. You still don’t get it. You took 500 large, and then you’re going to sit there and tell me, oh, you still feel like a PGA Tour member. I want to support the PGA Tour.
“I mean, I want to I want to wring his neck through the television. I’m that mad, right now. I’m that mad. I mean – and every player in that locker room right now, if they watch that – on the PGA Tour – should be absolutely incensed with him.”
Obviously, the feelings are nowhere near as strong as they were in early 2024. There was a lot of disappointment that Rahm decided to make the jump.
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Had PGA Tour players been told in early 2023 that Brooks Koepka was going to return at some stage, they would have surely been a lot angrier about the prospect.
However, Koepka has received a good reception this year. And Rahm can probably expect similar if he does come back in the coming months.
The PGA Tour membership largely recognise that having a player of Rahm’s calibre is good for them, even if they have serious questions about some of his actions in recent years.
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