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Mark Schlabach
A number of Authors
STERLING, Va. — Two-time main champion Jon Rahm mentioned he has a number of years left on his contract with LIV Golf and does not see “some ways out,” because the league makes an attempt to seek out new financing after Saudi Arabia’s Public Funding Fund introduced it would pull its funding after this season.
Throughout a information convention Tuesday forward of this week’s LIV Golf match at Trump Nationwide Golf Membership, Rahm additionally revealed that he has settled his long dispute with the DP World Tour over his unpaid fines for enjoying in conflicting occasions with out a launch.
The settlement permits the previous world No. 1 to regain his eligibility to compete for the European staff in subsequent yr’s Ryder Cup.
“Proper now, I’ve a number of years in my contract left,” Rahm mentioned. “I am fairly certain they did a fairly good job once they drafted that, so I do not see some ways out. Proper now, I am probably not excited about it as a result of we nonetheless have a season to play and majors to compete for. It is not one thing I wish to take into consideration simply but.”
Rahm, 31, is a two-time defending LIV Golf particular person champion and leads the league in factors this season with two victories and three runner-up finishes. The PIF introduced final Thursday that it will not fund LIV Golf past this season.
Rahm mentioned Tuesday that LIV golfers had been advised that there can be PIF funding for “a few years.”
“Actually, I feel the preliminary information and the rumors over there in Mexico, since we’re in a match week, I nearly simply tried to behave as if it was simply rumors,” he mentioned. “As a result of we’re competing, I did not wish to waste any vitality on an already demanding week excited about it.
“For me, the fact type of got here afterwards. I might say, like everyone, [I was] shocked. Clearly, [it was] sudden. We did hear the information that there can be funding for a few years. However then as the way forward for the league goes, I feel that is clearly a query for the businesspeople.”
Earlier Tuesday, LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil advised reporters that the league is within the means of creating a marketing strategy, securing golfers after which taking the league to market.
O’Neil changed former LIV Golf CEO and commissioner Greg Norman in January 2025.
The league lured star golfers away from the PGA Tour with assured contracts value greater than $100 million — Rahm reportedly obtained $300 million over a number of years — and purses which have now reached $30 million.
The PIF has invested greater than $5 billion into the breakaway circuit since its inception in 2022, and that quantity will develop to greater than $6 billion by season’s finish.
“I knew in a short time that we have been going to need to right-size this enterprise, and now we discover ourselves in that spot,” O’Neil mentioned.
O’Neil mentioned he obtained a few dozen calls from potential buyers this previous weekend, together with private-equity corporations and different high-worth people.
“It is nonetheless early,” O’Neil mentioned. “We have not gotten to market but. We have not finalized our marketing strategy. We nonetheless are like selecting and prodding, however we now have an excellent sense at this level, you already know, 10 days in. We all know the place we’re going, and now we’re simply going to tighten the screws.”
No matter what occurs, O’Neil mentioned LIV Golf is not going to transfer away from its concentrate on staff golf, which has differentiated it from different skilled golf leagues all over the world. He believes promoting shares of LIV groups such because the Legion XIII, Crushers GC and RangeGoats GC will create probably the most worth.
“In the event you ask me the place the worth of this enterprise is, it is within the groups,” O’Neil mentioned. “In the event you’re in search of route, we imagine that groups may have extraordinary worth. We imagine that when we set the enterprise in the proper route, with the proper trajectory, with the proper income base and price base, which we’re effectively on our method to doing, that these groups may have extraordinary worth.”
England’s Tyrrell Hatton, one other member of Rahm’s Legion XIII staff, additionally mentioned he has a number of years left on his LIV Golf contract.
“We wish to be right here,” Rahm mentioned. “It has been lots of enjoyable. I wish to maintain competing. I wish to maintain sharing a while with [my teammates], however time will inform. Clearly, I feel Scott and his staff have lots of onerous work to do.”
O’Neil mentioned it was too early to say whether or not LIV Golf must transfer ahead with lowered purses and fewer tournaments every season to scale back prices.
“I feel captains and staff homeowners and gamers which are concerned within the league must, in essence, have a big majority to agree for it to work,” Rahm mentioned. “I do imagine that for the marketing strategy to vary, no matter they provide you with, there’ll should be some concessions on their half.”
