New earthquake in golf: Jon Rahm will not continue at LIV

From December 7, 2023 to October 7, 2026. From one earthquake to another. From the announcement a little less than three years ago of Jon Rahm's signing for the Saudi Golf League, LIV, and consequently his departure from the PGA Tour, to the confirmation this Wednesday of the Basque golfer's abandonment of the groundbreaking circuit that split his sport in two. Jon Rahm's lawyer, John Beck, has announced this in the court processing LIV's bankruptcy. "Mr. Rahm has independently examined the proposed conditions for LIV 2.0, as the parties have been calling it, and has determined that they are unacceptable to him, and will therefore not participate in LIV 2.0 going forward. The parties are, therefore, in advanced negotiations to reach a consensual separation agreement between Mr. Rahm and LIV," Beck said on behalf of the Spanish golfer.

Rahm therefore does not agree to continue in the Saudi League next year after the circuit has lost funding from the Saudi Sovereign Fund (PIF), which has injected more than $5 billion since the competition's inception in 2022. The new LIV, called LIV 2.0, is a shaved version with fewer tournaments and less money in prizes (until now it was $30 million per event) and has barely managed to gather sponsorship from the BC Partners fund. 300 million. These are the “unacceptable conditions” that Rahm rejects, who thus flees a circuit that is devalued sportingly and economically and who with his goodbye suffers a mortal blow.

The Basque golfer is part of LIV's creditors worth about 7.4 million dollars for the services provided and more than 100 million pending for the agreement signed in 2023, although now negotiations are aimed at breaking that contract. Once he has announced that he will not continue in the new version of the Saudi League, Rahm seeks to separate himself from the original LIV and find a sporting outlet that will involve returning to the European circuit and possibly in the future to the American circuit. The Spaniard will not be able to play on the PGA Tour until he has served a one-year ban since his last participation in LIV, which was last August 23.

“There is a long legal process before many things can be finalized,” Rahm said a few days ago. The first step has already been taken: no to the new LIV. The next will be the definitive separation. And then, clarify where he will play in 2027, surely on the European circuit. Gone will be three seasons in which he has successively won the LIV individual classification, but in which he has not won a major again after the 2021 US Open and the 2023 Masters and in which he has not competed face to face with many of the best players in the world, such as Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy. A richer, but sportingly poorer Rahm returns to traditional golf.