- The two tours in the sport have been undergoing talks over the last 22 months
- An agreement, however, seems far away after a flurry of previous optimism
- Rahm suggested that a potential agreement would be welcomed by the players
Jon Rahm has admitted a reunification of golf’s rival tours is ‘not happening any time soon’ after recent peace talks hit a setback.
The Spaniard’s assessment tallies with the consensus of those who have been close to the discussions between the PGA Tour and the Saudi backers of the LIV circuit across the past 22 months.
After an initial flurry of optimism at the turn of the year, it has lately become apparent that the PGA Tour is currently unwilling to give up sufficient ground to LIV in any proposed merger.
Saudi frustration with the PGA Tour position is understandable, given they have so far pumped $5billion into the start-up and don’t wish for LIV to be squeezed into the corner of any future arrangement. But the PGA Tour is evidently emboldened by a sense that they have seen off the worst of LIV’s talent raids, especially at a time when there are heightened questions about the breakaway league’s sustainability.
This week’s Masters will see only 12 LIV golfers in the field, representing a rare chance in the fractured calendar to see the best of the sport face off against each other. Rahm, the former world No 1 and 2023 Masters champion, want to see such showdowns more often but admitted no end is in sight.
He said: ‘I think we all would like to see that. But as far as I can tell and you guys can tell, it’s not happening anytime soon.’
He added: ‘The state of the game and what’s happening – we don’t know. No one knows. We all want a solution, and it’s hard to give one.’
LIV’s immediate future under Scott O’Neil is fascinating, with the first raft of high-profile player contracts approaching expiration across the next two summers. The question is whether the Saudi Public Investment Fund will continue to flood in resources in the longer term if they are unable to find a workable co-existence with the PGA Tour.
Their most notable breakthrough off the course came from finally landing a serious broadcasting deal with Fox for this season, but their viewing numbers remain low. They broke their own records for the Miami event last weekend, with 484,000 watching Marc Leishman’s win on Sunday, though the figure was still only a third of the audience drawn to NBC for Brian Harman’s victory at the PGA Tour’s low-key Valero Texas Open.
Such figures have inevitably meant some of the world’s best golfers are working in the shade. That has frustrated Rahm, who won LIV’s 2024 season but feels his season was unfairly characterised as a failure, owing to his poor showing here last year and again at the US PGA Championship.
He said: ‘I think last year the state of my game was being unfairly judged based on how I played here and at the PGA compared to how I really played throughout the whole year.
‘While I understand why, I don’t think it was the most fair.’
