Jon Rahm Has All The Signs of Buyer’s Remorse

Jon Rahm made the move to LIV Golf in December, and he is showing all the signs of buyer’s remorse.

Rahm reportedly signed a deal that would take away his ability to play on the PGA TOUR and transfer to LIV Golf, establishing his own four-man team on the rival golf promotion, for over $300 million. However, as the old saying goes, money doesn’t buy happiness, and it appears Rahm is not completely sold that he made the best choice.

Yesterday, during a press conference prior to the start of this week’s PGA Championship, Rahm said that, even though he is suspended from the PGA TOUR for playing for LIV Golf, he still feels like a PGA TOUR member:

“See, you guys keep saying ‘the other side, ‘ but I’m still a PGA Tour member, whether suspended or not. I still want to support the PGA Tour. And I think that’s an important distinction to make.”

Rahm was wooed by the hundreds of millions of dollars LIV Golf threw at him. Who wouldn’t be? Many other golfers took less, and in some instances, much less. However, Rahm was one of the hottest players in golf at the time he took the deal, which made his value skyrocket. 

Jon Rahm’s comments that sent Eamon Lynch & the Golf Channel panel into fits of rage, “I’m still a PGA Tour member, whether suspended or not & I still want to support the PGA Tour.” #PGAChampionship pic.twitter.com/bkiEJMdSeA

— Chris McKee (@mrmckee) May 14, 2024

However, Rahm is a fierce competitor, wearing his emotions on his sleeve and expecting victory at every turn. Perhaps LIV is not the environment, or even the competition, that he expected. Although names like Koepka, Johnson, Smith, Mickelson, DeChambeau, and various other high-profile players in the sport are there, the events do not have the prestige, and the fields, for the most part, are not as strong as PGA TOUR fields.

Golf commentators were outraged by Rahm’s comments, Arron Oberholser being one of them (via Fox News):

“He doesn’t get it. To this day, he doesn’t get it. This is a guy who wanted a position or wanted to be heard, from what I understand. Either a board position, policy board, he wanted to be heard on this whole thing before he went to LIV. And I feel like he wasn’t as heard as much as he probably should’ve been, and now, I’m glad he wasn’t in that position because he doesn’t get it. I’m incensed by that, quite honestly, … by the level of naiveté – that you don’t get it. You still don’t get it. You took 500 large, and then you’re gonna sit there and tell me, ‘Oh, you still feel like a PGA Tour member? I want to support the PGA Tour.’ I mean, I want to wring his neck through the television. I’m that mad right now. I’m that mad. Every player in that locker room right now, if they watched that on the PGA Tour, should be absolutely incensed with him.”

For what it is worth, Rahm made the move that he thought was the best option at the time. The millions and millions of dollars he accepted will set his family up for generations. His kids may never have to wake up and feel the stress of a normal job and a normal career. That’s all people want for their loved ones as providers.

However, Rahm’s comments struck many the wrong way. Knowing the consensus on LIV Golf was still somewhat up in the air, he took a leap, and it may have worked out in one sense but not so much in another. Rahm will lean on the PGA TOUR’s potential merger with the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) to make his way back to his old TOUR. 

“I don’t feel like I’m on the other side,” Rahm said, speaking about the PGA TOUR. “I’m just not playing there. That’s at least for me personally.”

Cover Image via Golf Magazine