But as the league seeks between $250 million and #50 million to help keep it afloat, its other star—fellow two-time major winner Jon Rahm—has ruled out performing a similar role to DeChambeau during the pitching process.

“I am not, no,” Rahm said during a press conference in Spain on Tuesday at LIV Golf Andalucia when ask about meeting with potential investors. “I said [moments earlier] it in Spanish; I don’t know how to translate it to English; it would be more of a ‘stay-in-your-lane’ type situation as it goes to me.

“I know nothing about business. I’m never going to claim to know anything about business, and if I was in a business pitch, I would not know the first thing to say. My job is to play golf, and I’ll say it is hard enough as it is, especially this week [at the exacting Valderrama course].”

Rahm has three children and a fourth expected later this fall. While the 31-year-old would listen to any suggestions on how he could get involved, Rahm said there were time constraints.

He also has two remaining major championships outside of LIV Golf, as well as a minimum five DP World Tour events to compete in after reaching an agreement to continue playing on the circuit.

“If any player who knows what they’re doing is willing to do certain things like that, I think it can only help,” Rahm said. “To have insight from a player on a meeting like that can help, and I’m open for any suggestions possible. But I would also say I don’t have the free time that Bryson has to be flying around the country to attend meetings with three little ones and one on the way. Even if I wanted to, I don’t know if I could do it.”

LIV Golf is in the process of pitching to investors with the assistance of New York-based Ducera Partners.

It is believed the league is pitching a 10-event schedule to potential investors while trying to secure between $250 million and $350 million. A re-shaped LIV Golf would extend equity beyond just the team captains and will have an emphasis on team golf. More than 12 players provided introductions to potential investors, for both the league and its teams.

In contrast to Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau is working with LIV Golf officials to meet with potential investors to help secure future funding for the league. Jamie Squire

This came about after the Public Investment Fund confirmed it would not finance LIV beyond the 2026 season, following a reported spend of between $5 billion and $8 billion since the league launched in 2022.

Last week at LIV Golf Korea, DeChambeau was asked by reporters about the PIF’s withdrawal from LIV and his confidence in securing new investment.

“One door closes, another opens,” DeChambeau said. “I think that’s the way a lot of us are looking at it. I think we all have optimism that there is a business plan that makes sense for team golf.

“I’m very optimistic with the business plan of team golf compared to other models, in my opinion.”

LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil had said previously that five-time league winner DeChambeau had been “a driven” partner.

“You want to talk about a business partner, we’re literally talking about the future of LIV Golf, I’m talking with him about how does he see, not just the golf, but the business? He’s smart, he’s driven, he’s committed, and he’s a heck of a partner.”

LIV Golf Andalucia, the ninth event of the season, starts Thursday at Valderrama, a former DP World Tour and World Golf Championships host course. It also held the 1997 Ryder Cup.

The league will then take a seven-week break given its Louisiana event, scheduled for June, has been postponed until a potential fall date.

Follow Golf Digest Middle East on social media

Instagram

X

Facebook

YouTube

Main Image: Eurasia Sport Images

The post Why isn’t Jon Rahm stumping more to help LIV Golf find new investors? appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

At a PGA Championship that has played like a U.S. Open, that’s the only thing keeping players upright. And with 18 holes remaining, Rahm is in contention to claim a much-anticipated third major title.

“It’s an extremely difficult golf course. Today is probably the easiest setup of the three, but still with the wind the way it’s going and the greens right now, you have to play really good golf to give yourself a chance out there,” Rahm said after a third-round 67 that leaves him a four under for the championship. “So not surprised the scores are a little bit harder to accomplish in the afternoon, especially the later tee times.

“As far as me is concerned, that was a fantastic round of golf and thrilled to be in a good position for tomorrow.”

It’s tempting to say Rahm has kept his cool this week, though that framing requires a small asterisk: he did accidentally catch a volunteer in the face with a divot after an angry swipe at the rough, a reminder that the embers are never fully out. But Aronimink has stress-tested everyone in its path, and against that standard, Rahm has been a model of relative composure, absorbing bad breaks, grinding through the difficult stretches and refusing to let one sour moment bleed into the next. The underlying numbers reflect it. He’s second in the field tee-to-green and first around the greens, a combination that suggests a player in command of his instrument even when the music gets difficult.

The putter hasn’t been a weapon; more a reliable foot soldier than a difference-maker. But it hasn’t cost him, either, which at this PGA qualifies as victory.

“They’re hard. The best way I can describe it is you’re going to be … you’re going to see very few major championship golf courses where, if you’re in the middle of the green, you’re going to have as hard a time to two-putt as you can on some of the holes out here, especially with the pin locations,” Rahm said. “Usually being in the middle is a safe haven. This week you need to think about where you’re going to leave the ball because the middle isn’t always the best option with how sloped those greens are. I think a little bit is where I leave myself, what putts I’m leaving myself, for those statistics to change. I didn’t feel like I putted badly on the first day. They just didn’t go in.”

Putting aside, he has looked like the Rahm of the past. Which, frankly, hasn’t been present for some time.

Rahm at majors was once a fixed coordinate on the leaderboard. Eight career top-fives before his departure to LIV, anchored by wins at the 2021 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines and the 2023 Masters. Since crossing over, he has approximately zero such finishes. Save for a brief Sunday charge in the PGA at Quail Hollow last year, he has been a non-factor every time the golf world convenes for something that actually counts. Playing in a league that has spent its existence batting away accusations of being a glorified exhibition, Rahm’s major no-shows have served as one of the prosecution’s most compelling talking points surrounding the competitive attrition that sets in when a player trades the pro golf grind for whatever LIV is supposed to be.

The cruelty of it all is what Rahm was before. After slipping on the green jacket at Augusta, he appeared to be on an all-time trajectory. Two majors and 20 wins before his 29th birthday, the first European to hold both the Masters and U.S. Open titles, a player whose gifts had finally caught up with their own promise. He carried, too, the particular weight of being cast as the spiritual heir to Seve Ballesteros, a designation that arrives with expectations no job description could fully prepare you for. For a player of that heft to dissolve into irrelevance at the only events that measure legacy, while running up scores against fields that couldn’t hold tour cards, teetered between disappointment and waste.

Emilee Chinn

Of course, the majors have only been part of the damage. In the non-Phil Mickelson division, no one has been a bigger self-inflicted casualty of golf’s civil war. Rahm was never beloved on the PGA Tour but he was universally respected, and respect, in the long economy of a career, is the more durable currency. He has, to put it mildly, burned through his tender. He denied interest in LIV repeatedly and on the record, then took the money anyway, a reversal that had less to do with principle than with the number of zeroes.

More recently he picked a gratuitous fight with the DP World Tour despite the circuit making concessions to preserve his Ryder Cup eligibility, a quarrel that served no strategic purpose and revealed something smaller than his talent. For a player who billed himself as a student of the game—someone who understood its history and what endures—the self-sabotage was especially hard to reconcile. Arguably, it explains the hollowness of the past three years. He knew what mattered. He chose otherwise. And the record across 10 major starts since then reads like a verdict.

Perhaps it is no coincidence, then, that as LIV’s collapse came into focus, something in Rahm has shifted. He has appeared visibly deflated when the subject arises in press conferences, acknowledging at various points that he feels essentially bound by the contract he signed. Less an employee than a man serving out a sentence. Even this week, when asked whether he would do it all again, Rahm did not offer anything resembling a ringing endorsement.

But the resignation—or the hope that he might have an out if the league folds—may also have loosened something. Freed from the weight of his game being read as a verdict on his choices, he has looked like himself again this week. When asked this week whether a strong finish might benefit LIV as the circuit scrambles for emergency funding, Rahm’s answer was blunt: “I’m thinking more about myself.” “I’m not going to take on anything outside what I can control when it comes to competing tomorrow,” Rahm continued. “If I do get it done and I sit here again tomorrow, then you can ask me the same question, and I’ll give you an answer. But what it would mean for Spain as well in the grand slam tally and being the last leg of the grand slam for us as well, there’s a lot of things that would mean a lot, but too much of it is out of my control.”

A victory wouldn’t necessarily rehabilitate his public standing overnight. That ledger has too many entries to be settled in a single week. But it would be a start. Sports fans are front-runners, after all. It would be a marker on the map back toward the player golf once believed he could become, and maybe, on some level, the player he still believes he is.

“As hard as it is to play, the challenge can also be kind of fun if you do well,” Rahm said Saturday. “That’s probably the reason why the leaderboard is so bunched up and it’s going to be such a good Sunday tomorrow.”

He’s right about both. Through three rounds, Aronimink has functioned less as a venue than an interrogator, a course that doesn’t merely expose your game but demands to know what you’ll do when it turns on you. Eighteen holes remain. For the first time in a long time, Rahm looks like he has the answers.

Follow Golf Digest Middle East on social media

X

Facebook

Instagram

YouTube

Main Image: Carl Recine

The post PGA Championship 2026: Joining LIV cost Jon Rahm’s legacy. He can start earning it back on Sunday appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Jon Rahm said Tuesday that he doesn’t “see many ways out” of his LIV Golf contract as he spoke openly for the first time about what his options will be now that the league has announced it’s no longer funded by Saudi Arabia’s PIF and is looking for investors for it to continue.

The two-time major champion was asked in Washington, D.C., ahead of LIV Golf’s event at Trump National, if he was able to get out of his contract with the league if he feels like it’s not suitable for him beyond this year.

“I have no idea, I couldn’t tell you,” he said. “I have very few talents in my life, and reading a contract or business are not two of them.

“As of right now, I have several years on my contract left, and I’m pretty sure they did a pretty good job when they drafted that. So I don’t see many ways out, and as of right now, I’m not really thinking about it since we still have a season to play and majors to compete for. So it’s not something I want to think about just yet.”

He may not be thinking about it yet, but it’s something Rahm is likely going to have to deal with soon. He’s willing to see what CEO Scott O’Neil comes up with first.

“I don’t think he would ask anybody to buy into anything without giving us a business plan first,” Rahm said. “Until we have that, I don’t think we can really answer the rest, right? It would just be speculation at that point.”

Rahm said that the league has worked with team captains, of which he is for Legion XIII, about their respective ideas. He’s given his opinion but realises it’s impossible to make everyone happy in a situation like this where there are 57 players and 13 teams.

For now, he’s trying to focus on playing this week in the nation’s capital. He leads the season’s individual standings, has won twice—including two weeks ago in Mexico City—and hasn’t finished worse than fifth place in six events.

But it’s not easy to focus on the golf course when there are so many distractions off of it. On Tuesday, he squashed one distraction by announcing that he and the DP World Tour have ended their dispute and he’s now eligible to play on Europe’s Ryder Cup team next year. The LIV Golf intrusions, however, do not appear to be going away soon.

“It’s definitely extra noise, there’s no denying it,” he said. “But I think we deal with it as athletes honestly. I think it’s part of the job a lot of times, and sometimes that extra noise is internal for something that may be happening family-wise that’s not public, which is much worse than this.

“We practice enough so once you get in competition mode, it doesn’t matter. It might be a worry before or after, but it shouldn’t be once you get to that first tee. We’ve said a few times, when it’s so uncertain and so out of our control, there’s really nothing to think about.”

Follow Golf Digest Middle East on social media

Instagram

X

Facebook

YouTube

Main Image: David Cannon

The post Jon Rahm doesn’t ‘see many ways out’ of his LIV Golf contract appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

“Same as any other golf tournament in the world, yeah,” the 2023 champ said.

He may have changed his opinion on that matter two days later, as the Spaniard finished with a one-over total following rounds of 73 and 68 on the weekend at Augusta National. His T-38 finish marks his second worst in this golf tournament in 10 tries, the worst being his T-45 the year after his victory. Both of those results have come post-LIV signing in February of 2024.

Rahm, who hit less than 60 percent of his greens this week, did not specifically point to the LIV schedule, or any of its venues, as the reason for his down week. But he did point to the fact he seemed underprepared for the firm and fast conditions.

“Definitely some things I’m going change going forward,” Rahm said. “Preparation-wise and what to do. But it’s hard to say how much I learned because I don’t think we ever seen a Masters this firm and I don’t know how long it’s going to be until we do again. Both off the tee and on the greens.”

The two-time major champion then got one more thing off his chest.

“Have you ever seen looking down the property how yellow the patron areas and how brown and purple parts of the greens and fairways are?” he said. “It will be a long time until we see it like this. Definitely have some things in mind for future editions where it gets to this level.”

What things, Rahm did not expand on. All he added was that he learned exactly what not to do when Augusta plays the way it did this week.

Follow Golf Digest Middle East on social media

Instagram

X

Facebook

YouTube

Main Image: Augusta National

The post Masters 2026: Jon Rahm says he needs to make some changes ‘preparation-wise’ after second-worst Masters result appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Two-time major champion and current LIV Golf player Jon Rahm has withdrawn his appeal against outstanding sanctions levied against him by the DP World Tour, but he remains on an island when it comes to his future status on the circuit.

Golf.com first reported on Friday Rahm’s move to drop the appeal on March 10 that he originally filed back in 2024, while the story also said Rahm has no intention of paying his outstanding fines. Golf Digest has previously reported those penalties to be less than $3 million.

In February, eight LIV Golf players, but not Rahm, reached a deal with the DP World Tour allowing them to compete freely on both circuits. Rahm, Tyrrell Hatton and others were permitted to play in DP World Tour events while appealing fines accumulated for defecting to the Saudi-backed circuit. That included participating in last year’s Ryder Cup, at which Rahm also played in Europe’s win.

Then the DPT issued conditional releases to Hatton—along with Laurie Canter, Thomas Detry, Tom McKibbin, Adrian Meronk, Victor Perez, David Puig and Elvis Smylie—to play in future LIV Golf events that conflict with DP World Tour events under three stipulations: That they pay all outstanding fines, participate in a set number of DP World Tour events (along with associated media activity and promotion) and withdraw all pending appeals.

Rahm balked at those requirements—particularly the minimum number of DPT starts needed—and was highly critical of the DPT while speaking ahead of LIV’s event in Hong Kong, which he ultimately won.

“I don’t know what game they’re [DP World Tour] trying to play right now,” he said, “but it just seems like in a way … they’re using our impact in tournaments and fining us and trying to benefit both ways from what we have to offer. It’s just in a way they’re extorting players like myself, and young players that have nothing to do with the politics of the game. So I don’t like the situation and I’m not going to agree to that.”

“They’re asking me to play a minimum of six events, and they dictate where two of those have to be, amongst other things that I don’t agree with,” Rahm said. “I did tell them, funny enough, lower that to four events, like the minimum says, and I’ll sign tonight. They haven’t agreed to that. I just refuse to play six events. I don’t want to, and that’s not what the rules say.”

With Rahm’s appeal over, he will be expected to pay the fines or face losing membership on the DPT, and, of large consequence, not be eligible for the 2027 Ryder Cup that is set to be played at Adare Manor in Ireland.

Follow Golf Digest Middle East on social media

Instagram

X

Facebook

YouTube

Main image: Andrew Redington

The post Jon Rahm drops DP World Tour appeal, but his status in Europe is very much in limbo appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Speaking at LIV Golf Hong Kong, which starts Thursday, two-time major winner Rahm explained why he didn’t agree to the conditional releases given to Tyrrell Hatton, Laurie Canter, Thomas Detry, Tom McKibbin, Adrian Meronk, Victor Perez, David Puig and Elvis Smylie for the 2026 season.

Rahm, ranked 54th in the world, was a notable omission from those who received conditional releases, which allow Hatton and Co. to compete this year in LIV Golf tournaments whose dates conflict with DP World Tour events. The conditional releases came under three stipulations: that they pay all outstanding fines, participate in a set number of DP World Tour events (along with associated media activity and promotion) and withdraw all pending appeals.

On Tuesday, Rahm reiterated his opposition to the criteria.

“I don’t know what game they’re [DP World Tour] trying to play right now,” he said, “but it just seems like in a way … they’re using our impact in tournaments and fining us and trying to benefit both ways from what we have to offer. It’s just in a way they’re extorting players like myself, and young players that have nothing to do with the politics of the game. So I don’t like the situation and I’m not going to agree to that.”

Not every high-profile DP World Tour member would agree. In Dubai in January, Rahm’s Ryder Cup European teammate and PGA Tour player, Rory McIlroy, argued that any DP World Tour member who played on LIV Golf knew there were rules for playing in conflicting events.

“I think any … members’ organisation like this has a right to uphold its rules and regulations,” McIlroy said. “And what the DP World Tour are doing is upholding their rules and regulations and we, as members, sign a document at the start of every year, which has you agree to these rules and regulations, and the people that made the option to go to LIV knew what they were.”

Rahm, 31, said he was particularly frustrated with the minimum six DP World Tour stops he’d need to meet for the requirements that are in addition to 14 LIV events and four majors. DP World Tour members need to play four events to maintain membership, which is also a requirement for eligibility on the European Ryder Cup team. If Rahm is suspended for not meeting the DPT’s requirements, his hopes to play in the 2027 Cup would be in danger.

“I don’t like what they’re doing currently with the contract they’re having us sign; I don’t like the conditions,” Rahm said. “They’re asking me to play a minimum of six events, and they dictate where two of those have to be, amongst other things that I don’t agree with.”

Rahm, who won last year’s individual season LIV title despite not having a victory, indicated his four events would come during the DP World Tour’s fall schedule through continental Europe. That run includes the Omega European Masters, Irish Open, BMW PGA at Wentworth, French Open, Alfred Dunhill Links Championship and the Spanish Open.

He later added: “Now, I did tell them, funny enough, lower that to four events, like the minimum says, and I’ll sign tonight. They haven’t agreed to that. I just refuse to play six events. I don’t want to, and that’s not what the rules say.”

For the conditional releases, there was the issue of paying DP World Tour fines. Golf Digest understands Rahm’s fines are less than $2.5 million. McIlroy recently made a public plea to both Rahm and Hatton last month to take the deal.

“We went really hard on the Americans about being paid to play the Ryder Cup,” McIlroy said in January. “We also said that we would pay to play in Ryder Cups. There’s two guys that can prove it.”

On McIlroy’s comments, Rahm said, “That statement would make a lot more sense if all 12 of us were being asked to pay, not only just the two of us,” Rahm said Tuesday. “There’s more intricacy that goes into this whole situation. While I understand why he’s saying that, we all do it for the love of the game; it’s a different situation than what we usually see.

“I’ll gladly pay my way to go on the Ryder Cup, not have to pay to still be a member of the DP World Tour and fulfill a commitment that I’m fully willing to commit.”

Golf Digest understands Rahms options are to agree to the conditions or pay further fines for competing in conflicting events. Rahm can also await a hearing.

Of the time spent on the issue, Rahm said, “Given also the fact that two years ago I was asked to appeal the fines so they could figure this out and sort it out, and I did, and we’re running into more problems right now.”

Follow Golf Digest Middle East on social media

Instagram

X

Facebook

YouTube

Main Image: Lionel Ng

The post Jon Rahm criticises DP World Tour for fines and appearance requirements: ‘They’re extorting players’ appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Niklas Norgaard. Laurie Canter. Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen. Jorge Campillo. John Parry. Dan Bradbury. No, we are not playing a game of “Name a random European professional golfer.” We just listed a collection of names who are ahead of Jon Rahm in the European Ryder Cup standings as of PGA Championship week. It’s true. Go see it for yourself.

That isn’t meant to disparage any of those players, all of whom are having solid years. It’s meant to highlight the fact that Rahm, once believed to be a plug and play at the Ryder Cup as long as he wanted to be, is a distant 29th in the European standings, 17 spots outside the top 12 and 23 outside the top six automatic qualifiers. Obviously, Rahm being on the LIV Golf circuit, where there are no Ryder Cup points or OWGR points, plays a big role here. Though Tyrrell Hatton, a fellow LIV golfer, is currently fourth in the standings, much of that due to his success in the limited amount of DP World Tour events he still plays in as well as the major championships over the last few years.

Of course, Rahm does have a T-7 at last year’s Open Championship to his name, but he missed the cut at the PGA Championship last year and then missed the U.S. Open at Pinehurst entirely, two key early events in the Ryder Cup standings. The theory with Rahm, though, is that he’s simply so good and so crucial to the team chemistry that he will be selected no matter what. Two majors, 11 PGA Tour wins, 10 DP World Tour wins and a 6-3-3 record at the biennial event will earn you that right.

Still, though, 29th in the standings is 29th in the standings. And while Rahm has top-10’d in every LIV event he has played in this year, he has not won. If he doesn’t show some real form in the remaining major champions, there is a world where him being “in or out” could become a legitimate conversation, as crazy as that sounds.

On Tuesday at Quail Hollow, this topic came up, a reporter asking Rahm if European captain Luke Donald has given Rahm an assurance that he’s on the team regardless of how the rest of the year goes or where he finishes in the standings. Rahm was not taking that bait.

“That’s a question for Luke,” Rahm said, chuckling. “It’s his team. Hopefully I can qualify and we don’t have to question it, but, I would like to personally think that I am. But, it’s not up to me, is it?”

The reporter asked again—has Donald said “don’t worry, you’re in”?

“You’re going to have to ask Luke that same question. It’s not up to me to say,” Rahm said.

Here’s the full exchange:

#WATCH — Jon Rahm refuses to say if Luke Donald has assured him a spot on the 2025 Ryder Cup team – “You’d have to ask Luke that question…” (via @LIVRandONIONS) pic.twitter.com/0S9w6cMZ3A

— NUCLR GOLF (@NUCLRGOLF) May 13, 2025

If you want to read between the lines there, you could argue Rahm is alluding to not having spoken to Donald about this topic. Or you could simply make the case that Rahm just doesn’t want to create a headline and/or piss off any player who is fighting to make the team and will now know there is already one less spot available. To steal a line from his former Ryder Cup teammate, Rory McIlroy, play better and all of this will take care of itself.

Follow Golf Digest Middle East on social media

X

Facebook

Instagram

YouTube

Main Image: Andrew Redington

The post PGA Championship 2025: Jon Rahm mum on Ryder Cup topic—“that’s a question for Luke” appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.