NASSAU, Bahamas — Rumors continue to fly that Jon Rahm is considering a lucrative offer to join LIV Golf.
For now, they are just that – rumors. But as Rahm remains mum on the subject, his fellow players have been left to address questions. Jordan Spieth, who recently rejoined the PGA Tour Policy Board as a replacement for Rory McIlroy was asked after his round how he thought Rahm leaving would affect negotiations with Saudi Arabia’s PIF, which funds LIV.
“I’m not sure specifically how it would impact those negotiations, but all in all, Jon Rahm is one of the biggest assets that we have on the PGA Tour,” Spieth said on Friday after shooting 67 in the second round of the Hero World Challenge. “It would be a really, really not very good for us in general because we want to play against the best players in the world, and that’s what Jon is.
“I know there’s been some guys that have talked to him. I know he’s maybe weighing some decisions, maybe not. I really don’t know, so I don’t want to insult him and say he’s weighing decisions if he already knows he’s not or he is. You know, that’s somewhat out of my control in a way.
“Obviously I could speak probably on behalf of 200-plus PGA Tour players in saying that we really hope that he’s continuing with us.”
In a follow-up question, he was asked what he would say to convince Rahm to stay.
“What’s weird is if he’s not considering it at all, which I really don’t know, then it would be an insult to be just playing this game with him to even answer these questions. He might be insulted by it,” Spieth said. “If it were me, and I don’t even know if I ever got an offer, but I like the way that I play four rounds of stroke play the same way we play the majors. I believe that we’re playing against the best players in the world, and it’s what I’ve always wanted to do is to play out here and try and catch PGA Tour wins, catch the legends of the game. It’s a history thing, and the money’s a bonus.”
Tiger Woods, who also joined the board as an independent director in the aftermath of the June 6 framework agreement was asked whether he was surprised there had been so much chatter about players leaving for LIV again. “Hypothetically would it surprise me? Yes, but there’s so many different things that have happened in the last, as you said, 48 hours but also in the last few weeks. Things have changed and will continue to change. Our deadline’s coming up here soon, so there’s a lot of moving parts, a lot of different things are happening very quickly because we know, you know, I think today’s the first day in December, we don’t have a whole lot of time.”
Pressed whether he wasn’t surprised, Woods said, “Nothing has really surprised me other than the fact that there’s so many different things that have happened so fast. That’s one of the things that all of us as player directors we’ve been working on, just that everything is now at a time crunch. It’s 24 hours a day just trying to figure it out.”
The PGA Tour, DP World Tour and PIF said in June that they would reach an agreement by the end of the year.