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The LIV Golf League struck one other devastating blow to the PGA Tour on Thursday, because the Saudi Arabian-financed circuit signed Masters champion Jon Rahm to a multiyear contract value greater than $300 million, in accordance with sources.
Rahm, a former No. 1 golfer on the earth and two-time main champion, is the most recent PGA Tour star to just accept lots of of thousands and thousands of {dollars} to defect to the rival tour. Given Rahm’s success and recognition world wide, the Spaniard could be LIV Golf’s most essential signing.
Rahm’s choice comes at a time when the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Funding Fund are attempting to convey a fractured sport again collectively by adjoining its business properties, together with LIV Golf. How does Rahm’s choice have an effect on these negotiations? What’s going to his future be within the main championships and Ryder Cup?
Here’s a have a look at among the most essential points surrounding Rahm’s choice:
Why now?
The LIV Golf League has been recruiting Rahm for almost two years, however he had been reluctant to make the soar from the PGA Tour due to the brand new circuit’s distinctive format that features crew and particular person competitions being performed concurrently, 54-hole tournaments and shotgun begins. Sources indicated to ESPN that format adjustments could be coming to future LIV Golf occasions to appease Rahm.
Rahm advised a Spanish-language podcast in July that he met with LIV Golf CEO and commissioner Greg Norman in Mexico in early 2022, earlier than the brand new circuit launched. “As an alternative of convincing me with the historical past of golf, with what I like, he began sending me numbers, numbers and numbers,” Rahm stated. “And my reply was, ‘Discuss to my supervisor, and we’ll speak sooner or later.’ It was the one time I spoke to him on the topic. In flip, I advised my supervisor that this does not attraction to me.”
LIV Golf did not finish its courtship of Rahm, who lastly got here round to creating the soar. In November, Rahm introduced that he was pulling out of his commitment to TGL, the tech-infused golf league being fronted by Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods. Then final week, Rahm wasn’t included in the field launched by the American Categorical in La Quinta, California, a match he gained final yr.
Does this influence the negotiations across the PGA Tour-Saudi PIF merger?
The timing of Rahm’s addition to the Saudi-financed circuit most likely is not a coincidence, because the PGA Tour and officers from Saudi Arabia’s Public Funding Fund are getting into the ultimate weeks of negotiations to finalize their framework settlement to merge their business pursuits into a brand new for-profit entity, PGA Tour Enterprises. The deadline for the framework settlement is Dec. 31.
Final week, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan described the Dec. 31 framework settlement deadline as “agency,” though sources advised ESPN that it could possibly be prolonged if there’s progress being made earlier than the brand new yr.
Touchdown a participant of Rahm’s caliber and recognition definitely offers the Saudis extra leverage on the negotiating desk. The PGA Tour had been listening to monetary presents from U.S.-based funding teams, together with Fenway Sports activities Group, which owns the Boston Red Sox and Pittsburgh Penguins. The PGA Tour stated the curiosity was unsolicited, however the Saudis may need believed that the tour wasn’t negotiating in good religion.
Signing the reigning Masters champion and one of many tour’s most achieved gamers was a transparent shot throughout the PGA Tour’s bow. As one supply advised ESPN this week, if a deal does not get accomplished between the Saudis and the PGA Tour, PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan is ready to “open up his checkbook” and “triple down.” Signing Rahm might have solely been an indication of issues to return.
What had Rahm beforehand stated about becoming a member of LIV Golf?
Over the previous 18 months, Rahm hadn’t criticized the LIV Golf League and had largely taken the excessive highway. Whereas PGA Tour loyalists like Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods have closely criticized the supply of LIV Golf’s funding and different elements of the rival tour, Rahm has remained quiet.
That does not imply Rahm’s choice is not stunning. Up to now, Rahm stated he wasn’t enjoying golf for cash, wished to compete towards the very best golfers on the earth and cared deeply about successful the tournaments that mattered most — the majors and PGA Tour occasions just like the Gamers Championship, Arnold Palmer Invitational and the Memorial.
“Everyone’s free to make their very own selection, it is so simple as that,” Rahm stated in February 2022. “All I can say is from any individual younger like myself who has his whole future forward of him, it does not appear to be a sensible factor. Once more, the one attraction I see is financial, proper? So like I stated simply earlier on, I feel there’s much more to have the ability to play for apart from simply cash on the PGA Tour. There’s historical past, there’s legacy. On the finish of the day, I am on this to win tournaments, I am on this to play towards the very best on the earth.”
4 months later, earlier than the 2022 U.S. Open in Brookline, Massachusetts, Rahm stated LIV Golf’s format did not attraction to him.
“I think about the PGA Tour has accomplished a tremendous job giving us the very best platform for us to carry out,” Rahm stated. “I do see the attraction that different folks see in direction of the LIV Golf. … To be sincere, a part of the format just isn’t actually interesting to me. Shotgun, three days to me just isn’t a golf match, no lower. It is that easy. I need to play towards the very best on the earth in a format that is been occurring for lots of of years. That is what I need to see.”
Does this have an effect on his enjoying standing for the majors?
As a result of Rahm picked up his second major on the Masters at Augusta Nationwide Golf Membership in April, he is assured of being eligible to compete in every of the 4 majors by way of at the very least the 2027 season. Successful a inexperienced jacket offers him a lifetime exemption into the Masters.
Rahm was already eligible to compete within the U.S. Open by way of 2031 after he gained his first main at Torrey Pines in La Jolla, California, in 2021. His Masters victory earned him five-year exemptions into the PGA Championship and The Open as properly.
The 4 governing our bodies that stage the majors have not banned LIV Golf gamers from competing of their tournaments, though every of them left open the opportunity of tweaking their exemptions and qualification classes.
Will this have an effect on his skill to play for Europe within the 2025 Ryder Cup?
Rahm competed for the European crew in every of the previous three Ryder Cups and appeared destined to someday develop into a crew captain. Like his heroes Seve Ballesteros and José María Olazábal, Rahm appeared to care deeply concerning the worldwide competitors.
Rahm was additionally one of many European crew’s high performers in every of the previous two Ryder Cups. He gained 3 ½ factors within the U.S. crew’s 19-9 victory at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin in 2021. Rahm was almost unbeatable earlier than falling to Scottie Scheffler 4&3 in Sunday singles.
Two months in the past, Rahm picked up three factors within the European crew’s 16 ½-11 ½ win at Marco Simone Golf and Nation Membership exterior Rome.
LIV Golf League captain Brooks Koepka was a captain’s selection on the U.S. crew after ending seventh in factors (the highest six had been computerized qualifiers). The PGA of America — and never the PGA Tour — oversees the Ryder Cup. As a result of Koepka was nonetheless a member of the PGA of America for a grace interval that expires in June, he was eligible to make the crew.
Ryder Cup veterans like Sergio Garcia, Paul Casey, Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood and others had been ineligible for the European crew as a result of that they had resigned their DP World Tour memberships. Sweden’s Henrik Stenson was stripped of his captaincy after making the soar to LIV Golf.
On the BMW PGA Championship in England in September, Rahm disagreed with Garcia and others being ineligible for the crew.
“I feel it could be actually silly of anyone to not lean on Sergio García’s expertise within the Ryder Cup,” Rahm stated. “I imply, he’s the very best participant Europe has ever had, gained probably the most factors and has proven it time and time once more. If he had been in a position to be a vice captain, I completely would lean on him.”
However did not the PGA Tour and LIV Golf agree to not poach gamers anymore?
The framework settlement, which was introduced June 6, included a provision that prohibited the LIV Golf League from recruiting gamers from the PGA Tour and vice versa. The clause said that neither facet would “enter into any contract, settlement or understanding with” any “gamers who’re members of the opposite’s tour or group.”
A few month after the framework settlement was reached, nonetheless, the edges agreed to take away the supply after regulators from the U.S. Division of Justice’s Antitrust Division raised issues concerning the non-competition elements of it.
In a press release on the time, the PGA Tour stated, “The Framework Settlement units the stage for an thrilling future for skilled golf that re-establishes competitors on the highest ranges of the game and creates the largest stage for everybody — gamers, sponsors, and followers. Based mostly on discussions with workers on the Division of Justice, we selected to take away particular language from the Framework Settlement. Whereas we consider the language is lawful, we additionally think about it pointless within the spirit of cooperation and since all events are negotiating in good religion.”
What does this imply for the PGA Tour and Commissioner Jay Monahan?
Dropping Rahm is one other reminder of the Saudis’ seemingly infinite wealth and their steadfast dedication to creating the LIV Golf League work, regardless of its struggles to realize traction in its first two seasons.
Dropping growing old gamers like Phil Mickelson, Louis Oosthuizen, Bubba Watson, Poulter and Westwood is one factor, however watching previous main champions like Koepka, Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, Cameron Smith and now Rahm make the leap to the rival league is a completely completely different matter. They’re among the most achieved and common golfers on the earth and nonetheless have loads of rounds left.
There’s going to be great stress on Monahan — not that there already wasn’t — to get a deal accomplished with the Saudis within the coming weeks or months. Rahm may solely be the primary domino to fall in what could be one other wave of PGA Tour gamers defecting to LIV Golf. Monahan’s future as commissioner would possibly very properly depend upon his skill to strike a take care of the Saudis.
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