Jon Rahm Weighs In On Reports Over LIV Golf Future

Jon Rahm says reports of the Saudi Public Investment Fund withdrawing its funding for LIV Golf have not worried him this week.

The two-time Major winner and former World No.1 became arguably LIV Golf's biggest signing at the end of 2023, when he joined on a nine-figure, multi-year deal.

Rahm has won LIV's individual standings the last two years but is coming under pressure for his decision to join the Saudi-backed circuit after a poor Masters performance.

He has finished inside the top-10 in 29 of his 30 LIV Golf starts but slumped to a six-over-par 78 on day one at Augusta and finished the week in a tie for 38th-place.

Back on LIV this week in Mexico, he once again got off to a great start and looks set to continue his remarkable record on the circuit - and he says the high-profile reports this week did not distract him.

"Until the people in charge told me whether the rumors were true or not. For me, it didn’t make sense to think about it or waste time thinking about it," Rahm said on whether this week's news has been distracting.

"We were here; we knew we were going to play, so the idea was to prepare for a tournament. And that’s it.

"Since everything happened so suddenly and so quickly, I wasn’t very worried about it because normally, before the rumors start, we already know something.

"There’s always someone within the league who knows something; it happened so fast that I really didn’t worry about it."

Rahm went out and shot a six-under-par 65 on day one at Chapultepec to sit in 2nd-place, three behind Victor Perez.

The Spaniard spoke to LIV's Su-Ann Heng following his round, where he once again stressed that reports this week have not distracted him.

"Can't really waste too much time on things I can't control, right," he said.

"So my mindset was to keep working on the week and operate as normal and keep working on the things that I feel like I needed to keep working on, and prepare for the tournament. That was it."

LIV's CEO Scott O'Neil, who told staff this week LIV is pressing ahead "at full throttle", spoke on the broadcast and did not deny reports of the PIF pulling out. He did deny talks of a 'secret meeting' in New York and hit out at media for their coverage.

"Having been in private equity now for over a dozen years, which is the process you go through, and sometimes it's not smooth and sometimes it's not easy, but I can tell you, given the momentum of this business, we're really excited about where we are and the position where we are," he said.

"This notion of secret meetings and getting summoned to New York - I live in New York so it was easy to summon myself there, but it was a lot of reaching and grabbing for headlines and clickbait and stories.

"For us, we're business as usual. If you want to ask me if this business is tough, I would say absolutely. If you asked me if we're managed very tightly, I would say absolutely. Can this be challenging? Absolutely, and that's what we signed up for, not just me, you, everyone here that's with us down in Mexico City.

"We signed up for this adventure, and it is the ride of a lifetime, or should I say, round of a lifetime.

"I'm disappointed with some of the coverage. I've never been in an industry that has more unnamed sources than this one. In fact, I was reading through some coverage this morning, and I couldn't find one source on the record in all the articles that were written.

"I would just say let's be responsible. If I am a PGA Tour player, I want LIV to survive. These prize purses are pretty good. Competition is good for business. If I'm a television network, I'd love LIV Golf to survive. It's good television. If I'm a reporter, it certainly makes the news a little more spicy, or has occasionally.

"If you're a fan, you want more golf around the world. If you're outside the U.S., we are outside the saturated market and we're in markets that are dying for this kind of action.

"So I think there's a lot more to gain with LIV Golf here than LIV Golf gone."