On the first day of Christmas, my true love said to me, Jon Rahm is off to Saudi.
It seems a case of when rather than if Jon Rahm moves to the Saudi backed LIV Golf Tour and a potential move would shake the world of golf to its core and only widen the schism that already exists, especially if Rory McIlroy isn’t there to helplessly talk him out of it.
Rahm is reportedly weighing up a $300 million offer from the PIF and the timing is crucial as the December 31st deadline for the framework agreement between the PIF, PGA Tour and DP World Tour edges ever closer.
PGA Tour CEO Jay Monahan and PIF chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan are due to meet over the course of the weekend with Rahm’s potential move adding further spice to this boiling pot of uncertainty.
Money of course is the biggest lure, let’s not pretend it isn’t.
The Spaniard has always danced either side of the fence, while previously pledging his allegiance to the PGA Tour he has also defended LIV golfers, most commonly Sergio Garcia whom he advocated for inclusion on the European Ryder Cup team in September but to no avail.
Every player has a price and $300m seems pretty difficult to turn down over loyalty to the Comcast top-10 on the PGA Tour.
The two-time major champion is an interesting character who has a chip on his shoulder. He has been one of the top five players in the world of golf consistently since he burst onto the scene at Torrey Pines in 2017 but he doesn’t feel like he gets the respect he deserves – like a certain Brooks Koepka.
It seems that Rahm is always on the outside looking in at golf’s inner circle. The love triangle of Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and Justin Thomas is not taking applicants to make a square and it irks him.
“You might need to ask Justin Thomas,” Rahm said of asking Tiger for advice at the 2022 Masters “There’s only one man in this field that hears advice from Tiger, because I’ve asked before and I get nothing.”
There is a sense that Rahm needs to feel loved. Outside of a Ryder Cup scenario he never seems to be part of the gang on tour.
Rahm also feels like his voice doesn’t carry as much weight as McIlroy’s and there is a sense that he has grown too frustrated over it and has had enough.
It annoys him that he isn’t part of the Tiger club which could be due to his ties with Phil Mickelson thus adding another dimension to his potential move to LIV.
Mickelson’s brother, Tim, was Rahm’s coach at Arizona State and agent when he first turned pro and the six-time major winner has been busy fuelling the rumours on Twitter recently.
Rahm has vehemently defended his fellow Spaniard Garcia also. There is a space in a potential LIV love triangle and an opportunity for adulation and the spotlight as the main man which he doesn’t feel he is getting Stateside with McIlroy and Woods still around.
Should LIV sign Rahm it would be their biggest signing.
Brooks Koepka is certainly LIV’s biggest player at present but when he moved from the PGA Tour he was riddled with injuries and battling a loss of form he feared he would not recover from. Dustin Johnson was the wrong side of his peak years while Cameron Smith’s loss was felt most having recently won the 150th Open Championship at St Andrews.
Signing Rahm would be massive, a player at the absolute peak of his powers. Europe’s biggest star outside of McIlroy. When it comes to the contract, it’s not a question of can he turn the money down? He can. But, can Europe leave him out of a Ryder Cup team in two years time like they could afford to do with other LIV players?
The answer at the moment is no.
The timing of the potential move is most intriguing.
Should he leave before the framework agreement deadline, Rahm could be back on the PGA Tour by the New Year.
The fact the PGA Tour entered into discussions with the Saudis, which ultimately caused McIlroy to resign his position on the PGA Tour Policy Board last month, has given Rahm a safety net to fall back on, a cover if he chooses to leave. He could be back just as quickly if the three tours get into bed with each other.
Rahm will have gone for the money but this framework could see LIV go to 72-holes or become eligible for Official World Golf Ranking points which he would obviously say was his motive for moving as a get out of jail card.
Players at the Hero World Challenge and Australian Open offered their opinions on Rahm moving to LIV but the reality is that if they see one of the main players on the PGA Tour leaving they will want a piece of the cake as well.
This leads into a wider scale question of where modern sport is heading? When the biggest stakeholders are also the richest it leaves sport open to being governed by money and squeezing out those on the bottom rungs of the ladder.
The common fan conversation in the pub – when not about VAR – is about Financial Fair Play and the situations surrounding Everton and Manchester City, not about the goal someone scored at the weekend.
Golf is a popular worldwide sport but the system is clearly broken if Phil Mickelson, Lee Westwood and Sergio Garcia are worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
There is talk that Saudi Arabia may even try to disrupt the UEFA Champions League and create their own competition to rival that, and let’s not talk of the European Super League.
Golf has become a political tool for Saudi Arabia just like football and the PGA Tour has had to virtually bankrupt itself to keep pace with the bottomless pit that is the Public Investment Fund to the point where the well looks to have run dry for Monahan, hence the impending agreement.
Rahm’s move to LIV could be a crucial domino in the overall outlook for modern professional golf and could paint a picture into the reality that sooner rather than later other sports will be governed by Saudi Arabia.
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