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Not including signing contract, Jon Rahm made $108 million in LIv prizes/bonuses (Mateo Villalba/LIV Golf)
The news that Jon Rahm won’t be returning to LIV Golf in 2027 hardly came as a surprise on Wednesday. It was all but evident going back to May that the two-time major champion who rocked the golf world when he signed with LIV in December 2023 was not too keen on the controversial league’s future.
Another question — which might not ever be properly answered: Was Rahm ever really into LIV Golf?
Sure, the big money signing bonus was the ultimate reason for the Spaniard jumping in the first place. And there’s no denying that money in nearly all of the cases — stated or otherwise — was behind the decision of many players to join LIV Golf.
But did Rahm ever really believe and buy into the team concept, even though his signing including adding a team that he captained and for which he was due equity?
Did he believe in traveling around the world to golf-starved markets as a way of “growing the game” and leaning into places that would be financially beneficial to the league.
And most of all, did he believe that his 2023 signing with LIV would hasten an agreement between the PGA Tour and the Saudi’s Public Investment Fund that never materialized?
Also in today’s DD …
Stray Shots looks at highlights from LIV bankruptcy hearing Wednesday
LIV Golf 2.0 is obviously headed to a much leaner version of the original concept, with purses that are far smaller and with a condensed schedule as well.
Rahm seemed to enjoy the idea that less is more. So why wouldn’t a leaner LIV be appealing?
Well, it’s got to be the money, right? The reduced purses. The possibility of miniscule Official World Golf Ranking points. The knowledge that he can likely return to being part of the PGA Tour’s Championship Series in 2028 if he leaves now.
Otherwise, a reduced schedule, seemingly, would be appealing. Rahm has not gone out of his way to play DP World Tour events, actually balking at the idea of adding to the minimum number of four events needed to retain membership when the DPWT made an offer that eight of his LIV peers could not refuse earlier this year. That allowed them to avoid conflicting-event releases and fines.
Rahm, however, stood firm — until it became clear that LIV was in trouble and his future in the league was in doubt. When the PIF pulled its funding in April, Rahm quickly made a deal with the DP World Tour so he could meet his membership minimum this year, be eligible for the 2027 Ryder Cup and have a place to play in 2027.
All of that could have still been possible in a streamlined LIV, even if he was owed millions he wasn’t going to see as part of bankruptcy.
If Rahm believed in the concept, playing for reduced prize money should be no issue. In just three years, Rahm made more than $108 million in prize money and bonuses alone. Of that total, a whopping $44 million came in the form of a season-long bonus for winning the league individual points title each year. (He received $16 million in 2024 and 2025 and $8 million this year.)
To put it in perspective, Rahm’s three-year total haul trails only three players in the history of the PGA Tour in career earnings: Scottie Scheffler, Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy.
And none of that includes his signing bonus, of which he still owed a considerable sum but was clearly in excess of $100 million collected.
Bottom line: Rahm is doing fine financially. If he believed in LIV, a 10-event schedule for 2.0 and also adding in a small DP World Tour slate would suit him just fine.
And yet … he’s moving on.
Rahm withdrew from this week’s Open de España because his wife, Kellie, is expecting the couple’s fourth child. But his lawyer, John Beck, spoke at a LIV bankruptcy hearing on Wednesday and said that Rham had “independently reviewed the proposed terms of LIV 2.0 … and has determined that those terms are unacceptable to him, and he will not be participating going forward.’’
That is surely a blow — even if expected — for LIV Golf, which has also lost fellow Spaniard Sergio Garica, whose contract was voided in bankruptcy court. Garcia, you might recall, was highly critical of the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour on his way to LIV Golf.
How the breakaway league survives remains to be seen. It continues on a path toward a transaction with BC Partners, which has agreed to invest in the league and help transition to the future. On Monday, it announced its intention to invest $300 million — subject to court approval but still far from complete.
At a Sportico Invest conference in London in which LIV CEO Scott O’Neil was in attendance, BC Partners’ Ted Goldthorpe spoke positively about the future.
“We’re super committed,” Goldthorpe said. “As Scott said, we’re going to start hiring back employees and planning for next year’s events. All systems go. The next 22 days will be about signing up the players, and I feel very good about that. We’ve had a lot of constructive dialogue with them. We obviously have a deadline now, but that’s the next big step for us.”
For now, BC Partners has extended a player commitment deadline to later this month as part of the negotiations with LIV. And it is working on a separation agreement with Rahm, which his attorney said they hope to have completed later this month.
So what now for Rahm? What are his playing options going forward?
He remains a member of the DP World Tour, so it is likely that is where he will play in 2027. PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp has consistently said there is not an immediate path back for LIV golfers, that the “returning member program” offered and accepted by Brooks Koepka is no longer an option.
But Rolapp also said the tour needed to be sure that LIV’s players were no longer under contract before commenting on paths back. So perhaps that now changes in Rahm’s case. If Rolapp holds Rahm to the year-long ban that other LIV players have faced, he could return sometime in the fall of 2027 and be fully exempt on the 2028 Championship Series — based on his 2023 Masters win.
Rahm is expected to play the DP World Tour’s event next month in Abu Dhabi to attempt to meet his tour minimum.
Now free from LIV, it will be interesting to see how he squares all of what has occurred over the past three years.
