Jon Rahm has confirmed this Tuesday morning in Virginia, ahead of this week’s LIV Golf tournament, the agreement reached with the DP World Tour to be able to play circuit events normally, for his points to start counting in the Race to Dubai, to be eligible for the Ryder Cup and, at the same time, not be punished for competing in his league. “There is no longer any standoff. We have been able to reach an agreement. There have been some concessions on both sides. I offered some and they reached out. Obviously, we have reached an agreement. That will no longer be a source of stress”.
That said, Jon assures he was never really worried about this matter. He always thought they would reach an agreement. “I was never worried about that. The Ryder Cup is still very, very far away, but I’m glad to, hopefully, not have to think about any worry or any complicated situation when Adare Manor comes around, hopefully never. I want to support the DP World Tour. There are many tournaments I want to play”.
With the DP World Tour question cleared up, the truth is Jon has many other unknowns on the table that he will have to deal with in the coming months. One of them is precisely his presence at the Open de España. Rahm revealed that Kelly is pregnant again and that he cannot guarantee his presence in Madrid right now. “My only concern right now, regarding those October tournaments, is the due date we have. That is the only matter that could mean I’m not at the Open de España. Beyond that, I think you can count on my participation”. It should be remembered that Kelly’s third pregnancy was already very complicated and also put Jon’s presence at the 2024 Open in doubt.
The other unknowns have to do with his future in LIV Golf. Rahm glossed over the league’s future. He does not want to talk about financial or legal matters, although he admits it was a surprise to learn that the PIF was withdrawing its funding. “Obviously it was unexpected. We had heard the news that there would be funding for many years, so it was unexpected. As for the future of the league, I think that is obviously a question for the business people. We want to be here. It has been a lot of fun. I want to keep competing. I want to keep spending time with them. But only time will tell. Scott and his team have a lot of hard work ahead, although they obviously have experience in this field and that’s why they were chosen to take on this role”.
Speaking of the league in the past tense does not help, although it also does not seem an easy task to undo his contract. Precisely on this point he commented: “I’ll also say that I’m not a lawyer. I have no idea. I couldn’t tell you. I have very few talents in life, and reading contracts or understanding business are not two of them. Right now I have several years left on my contract and I’m pretty sure they did a good job when they drafted it. So I don’t see many exit routes. And, right now, I’m also not really thinking about that, because we still have a season to play and majors to compete for. So it’s not something I want to think about yet”.
Another unknown is what would happen to Jon Rahm if LIV Golf becomes a smaller thing. “The key is the business plan. I don’t think anyone will be asked to commit to anything without giving us a business plan first. Until we have that, I don’t think we can really respond to the rest. Right now it would only be speculation”, he points out.
Rahm assumes that for LIV Golf to continue, whatever form it takes, they will have to give up some things. “It’s not just about me. It’s a team effort. It’s not about one person agreeing or not. I think all of us, as captains, team owners and players involved in the league, essentially need a large majority to agree for it to work. I do believe that, for the business plan to change, whatever they’re preparing, there will have to be some concessions on our part. Yes”, he said firmly.
The situation for LIV Golf players at the moment is not easy and Jon does not hide it: “It’s undoubtedly added noise, you can’t deny it. But I think, as athletes, we deal with it. I think often it’s part of the job. Sometimes that extra noise is internal, because of something that might be going on in the family and that is not public, which I would say is much worse than this. At the end of the day, we practise enough that, once you go into competition mode, it doesn’t matter. It may be a worry before or after, but it shouldn’t be when you reach the first tee. We’ve said it several times: when something is so uncertain and so out of our control, there’s really nothing to think about”.
