“Money is a very important factor, but there is more, like playing as a team; my goal is for golf to grow”
MADRID, 8 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish golfer Jon Rahm, number three in the world, this Thursday became a new player in LIV Golf, the Saudi League, by accepting a million-dollar signing, turning his back, pending future conversations, on the American PGA and the DP World Tour, European Circuit, which he had defended as one of his greatest banners.
The Barrika player himself appeared on the American network FOX News, in the Spanish early morning, to make the official announcement in a live interview. “After all the rumors, I can say that I have joined LIV Golf. It is not an easy decision, I have had a great career, there are many things that LIV Golf can offer, starting with playing as a team. As a professional you do not have that opportunity and it's a lot of fun to play for more than just yourself. LIV Golf has grown and refreshed the golf world,” Rahm said.
The rumor of recent weeks was finally confirmed, as impossible as it may have seemed not long ago. Rahm, one of the best golfers in the world for the last five years and with the quality to be at the top for many more years, accepted the offer from LIV Golf, the Saudi circuit founded in 2021 at the stroke of a checkbook.
The champion of the US Open in 2021 and the Augusta Masters in 2023 would have accepted the transfer for profits that, without being made public, multiple specialized media point to 500 million euros. The most talked-about signing in the world of sports and since LIV Golf became strong in the spring of 2022 amid fierce criticism.
“I can't comment. It's private and it will remain private. It was a great offer. The money is incredible, but what I said is true, I don't play golf for money, I play for the love of the sport. As a husband and father of a family “I have the obligation to give the best opportunities to my family. Obviously it is a factor, an important factor in my decision, but there are many others such as being a captain, being a team leader, making golf grow,” he said.
Saudi investment in sports has been linked in recent years to the image-washing sought by a country with important complaints regarding human rights, with an inexhaustible fund of millions. Golf was the last to join the list, with a circuit that signed some of the great players from the PGA Tour or European Tour.
Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, Cameron Smith, or the Spanish Sergio García and the English Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter are some of the LIV Golf figures. They tempted Tiger Woods and with Jon Rahm, hero of the last Ryder Cup won by Europe in Rome last September, they achieved an earthquake.
The 29-year-old from Barrika had repeated on many occasions his loyalty to the PGA, his passion for the competition, history and legacy. “Money is important, but the first thing Kelley and I thought when we started talking about it was whether our lives would change by earning $400 million more. No, it wouldn't change at all,” he said a little over a year ago to the gates of the US Open.
The newspaper archive will undoubtedly haunt Rahm. “The LIV format doesn't appeal to me at all. I watched a bit of the LIV London Tournament and the only thing that was talked about was the fact that Charl Schwartzel took home $4.7 million. I grew up hearing stories about Seve and those great players. The stories of the great victories are much more than money,” he added a year ago.
Despite the confrontation between the three major circuits and the distancing between players who had been teammates until recently, the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour and the Public Investment Fund, which manages the LIV circuit, signed an agreement last June to combine commercial rights. An agreement that remains unclear, although it ended the lawsuits and legal fights.
The commissioner of the PGA Tour even noted his intention to study team golf implemented by LIV Golf, while players stopped being sanctioned for leaving the American and European circuits, who made an effort to improve their conditions to avoid more exits like the bomb Rahm.
In the air and waiting to find out how the agreements go, the former world number one trusts in a coexistence of leagues and, thus, being able to play again for the PGA and the DP World Tour, with the importance of the world ranking and events such as 'majors', Ryder Cup or Olympic Games. “If I'm lucky and everything goes well in the future, I still want to be part of the PGA. If LIV Golf gives me the freedom without conflict, I want to be part of the PGA and the DP World Tour,” said a convinced Rahm. its objective.
“Make golf grow, make it better. I'm going to make a team and maybe, as an Athletic Club fan, children from Spain will want to be members of this team that I'm going to make. I can do something special,” he added, confident that his idol Severiano Ballesteros, “ambitious” like him, would “support” the Basque for his attempt to “improve golf in Spain and in the world” as the Cantabrian did.