Jon Rahm: "I wouldn't want to waste time thinking about it"

Jon Rahm says he doesn't want to waste time thinking about the PGA Tour's controversial deal with the Saudi backers of LIV Golf ahead of the Travelers.

Ben Smith

20 Jun 2023

Jon Rahm: "I wouldn't want to waste time thinking about it"

Jon Rahm says he doesn't want to 'waste time' thinking about the PGA Tour's deal with the Saudi Arabian backers of LIV Golf.

Rahm heads into the Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands as one of the tournament favourites despite not teeing it up here for more than three years.

It's a designated event, meaning there is a bumper prize purse of $20m. These events were created to try and persuade the tour's biggest stars from making the leap to their arch rival in 2022.

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The prospect of LIV Golf players returning to the PGA Tour one day is a very real possibility now, given the shocking news that dropped before the 2023 US Open, turning the game on its head once again.

PGA Tour boss Jay Monahan announced a deal to align the commercial interests of the Saudi wealth fund, PIF, the DP World Tour and PGA Tour.

That prompted Rory McIlroy to claim he was the tour's sacrificial lamb as to all intents and purposes he and other loyal PGA Tour stars were essentially sold out by Monahan.

| Jon Rahm and Patrick Cantlay disagree on the PGA Tour's designated events. pic.twitter.com/15vLSBJScl
— GolfMagic (@GolfMagic) May 31, 2023

According to one LIV exec, a compensation fund will be created to compensate those who rejected their mind-boggling LIV offers.

Monahan has now taken leave of his day-to-day duties owing to an unknown, medical issue.

The under fire chief executive acknowledged his hypocrisy in a tense players' meeting before the Canadian Open.

There was another meeting scheduled before the Travelers, of which Rahm confirmed he would attend.

"I didn't really talk about it much last week," Rahm told the media on 20 June. "And I guess I might know more in a few hours once we're done with the player meeting tonight."

He added:

"I don't think we're going to get a lot of answers, but I'm going to at least get an idea of where the membership head is at. That's all I can say. We don't know anything. I don't know if the people in charge know much more than we do.

"There are so many unanswered questions that at this point I wouldn't want to waste time thinking about it because there is a lot of what ifs and unknowns."

Understandably, Rahm wants to concentrate more on his golf.

He enters the Travelers chasing history. Rahm is currently the FedExCup leader with four wins this season, including the 87th Masters.

With a win this week, Rahm would become the first player to win five times in a season since Justin Thomas in 2016- 17.

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