LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Conversations with players who left the PGA Tour for LIV Golf don’t carry on for too long without someone inevitably bringing up the ongoing discussions between the Tour and LIV’s financiers, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.
Naturally, ahead of his eighth PGA Championship start this week at Valhalla Golf Club, Jon Rahm was asked about his viewpoint of the negotiations from the opposite side of the professional golf aisle.
“See you guys keep saying ‘the other side’ but I’m still a PGA Tour member, whether suspended or not,” said Rahm. “I still want to support the PGA Tour. And I think that’s an important distinction to make.”
“I don’t feel like I’m on the other side. I’m just not playing there. That’s at least personally,” he added. “I’m going to say what I’ve said all along, I hope we reach a resolution and a resolution that’s beneficial for everyone.”
“I’ve said however I can, I would like to support (the Tour), right. So even though I’m playing full-time on LIV Golf, like I’ve said many times, had I been allowed, I would have played some events earlier in the year, and if allowed in the future and not conflicting with my schedule, I would play in the future,” Rahm continued. “The PGA Tour has given me so much and has given me this platform and the opportunity that I’m not really going to turn to the side and go against it, because I’m not going against it.”
When it comes to interviews and press conferences, Rahm is one of the best in the game. He’ll answer whatever is asked and do so in a thoughtful manner. He’s smart, so he has to know that claims of loving the Tour can fall on deaf ears after he joined the very league that’s pushed the Tour to the brink.
That said, he’s still advocating for a global tour with a reunited game, but fell back on the often-used saying by players these days that there are smarter people than him to figure out how to do it. He also doesn’t think either side should rush to a resolution.
“This would be some decisions and negotiations that can’t be taken lightly, so it should take quite a bit of time to get it done properly,” Rahm explained. “I don’t know if that takes one, two, three, five, six years. I don’t know what that might be like. But I don’t feel like I’m on any rush to make something happen today, right.”
The Golf Channel set reacts to Jon Rahm saying in his press conference today saying he’s still a PGA Tour member and wants “to support” it.
“He doesn’t get it…I’m incensed…You don’t get it…I wanted to wring his neck through the television I’m that mad right now.” pic.twitter.com/bjefzSNgCQ
— Fried Egg Golf (@fried_egg_golf) May 14, 2024
The three-time member of Team Europe also dished on his desire to represent Team Europe in the Ryder Cup next year at Bethpage Black in New York. The DP World Tour recently clarified that LIV players can serve their suspensions while competing on the Saudi-backed league, which clears the way for European players to compete in the Ryder Cup so long as they pay their fines and make four DP World Tour starts. Rahm’s wife, Kelly, is pregnant with their third child, so her due date will impact Rahm’s schedule, but the big man from the Basque region of Spain is committed to earning a spot on Team Europe in 2025.
“I said I would do whatever I can to get into that Ryder Cup team, and I made that commitment to (captain Luke Donald), and I want to be able to be a part of it,” said Rahm. “So again the schedule’s going to be the hardest thing in that regard.”
Rahm loves watching old clips and highlights of past tournaments, so of course he did a YouTube deep dive on Valhalla, which has hosted three previous PGA Championships (1996, 2000, 2014), two Senior PGA Championship (2004, 2011) and the 2008 Ryder Cup. Rahm watched the 2014 PGA Championship live, but Anthony Kim walking off the 14th green after drubbing Rahm’s fellow countryman and friend Sergio Garcia, 5 and 4, in 2008 was the first thing that came to mind about Valhalla. Now LIV Golf colleagues, Rahm brought up the match with Kim ahead of this week’s major.
“As a 13-year-old I was very upset when he walked off the green on 14 after beating Sergio. I was like, ‘Man, that’s not fair, he’s such a you-know-what,’ and we laughed about it,” said Rahm. “I made him feel pretty old, but it was pretty cool to talk about it and talk about the Ryder Cup in that sense.”
So far this season on LIV, Rahm hasn’t finished worse than tenth in seven starts and has a trio of top fives under his belt. The two-time major champion appeared to take slight offense with a question about the state of his game, saying “I don’t think my game is in any sort of issues.” Rahm is the first to put his hand up and say he didn’t play well at Augusta National last month as he attempted to defend his 2023 Masters title, but was also quick to note the success he’s had with LIV thus far.
“I know it’s smaller fields, but I’ve been playing good golf. It’s just the one major that I played clearly wasn’t great,” Rahm said. “Have I played my best golf? No. But I do feel the last few weeks, especially coming off Singapore, I felt, you know, made a couple tweaks that you wouldn’t be able to tell. It’s just very minor things.”
“So I never, never felt like I was far off, and when I say I’m not playing my best, just hadn’t had my A-game for a week yet, but I still I’ve been close to my A game and B+ multiple times.”
If Rahm can find that A-game once again this week, don’t be surprised if he claims major championship number three.