Jon Rahm takes LIV handout [Updated]

The Saudis have restarted their offensive on big-name players in hopes of speeding up the merger with the PGA Tour

Update Dec. 7: Rahm has officially joined the Saudi Tour. ESPN, citing sources, said the deal is believed to be three-plus years, and reportedly worth more than $300 million.

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There’s growing speculation that Jon Rahm could “jump” to the LIV Tour for close to $500 million, and that has generated a ton of questions. For example, what does that mean for his Ryder Cup status? Wasn’t he one of LIV’s biggest detractors? I thought LIV was set to merge with the PGA Tour? Why does it matter?

In rapid succession:

Who cares?

Yes, Rahm was anti-LIV.

The merger is pending.

And, no, it doesn’t matter.

First an update on the merger. King goof and PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said he’s still eyeing Dec. 31 as a firm target for the deal with LIV and it’s pointless to back out now that the PGA Tour suffered the requisite PR backlash.

That’s why a guy like Rahm, who was outspoken about the gimmicky tour, should take the money. If a dollar of the earnings is tainted by blood money, it all is, so screw it. Maybe read the fine print so the Saudis don’t have Rahm performing trick shots until age 75, but outside of that, it’s OK to cave. The PGA Tour did.

Monahan played a game of big bank take little bank with the Saudi Public Investment Fund and his league was summarily dismissed. Morality clearly makes no difference to the organizers of major tournaments and eventually, the Ryder Cup’s superiority complex will crumble, too.

The losers in this whole debacle are the golfers who stood to make stupid money, but opted instead to gamble on the PGA Tour’s ethics. This is the same league that balked at paying its lower-ranked players a fair wage, and the outcome was expected, if not inevitable.

As it stands, both PGA and LIV tours will play their respective 2024 calendars because of the feet-dragging that’s taken place since the initial deal was announced in June. Who knows what golf will look like after the DNA splicing, but the way the PGA Tour handled everything shouldn’t make American golf fans optimistic.

The sport is riddled with executives and suits who are so close to big business that capitalism was destined to win out. According to the rumors, the signing might not even be about bringing Rahm over to LIV, but rather to back Monahan farther into a corner during negotiations.

If someone offered me half a billion dollars to be a pawn, I’d take it. Apparently, Jason Day and Adrian Meronk (whoever that is) also could be certified LIV in the near future. It’s the old stack casualties method of warfare and after a six-month ceasefire, the Saudis seem to be losing patience.

There are few entities willing to throw bags upon bags of money at players to lure them to a league that’s debatably expendable. However, this was the Saudis’ strategy from the start. It shouldn’t be a shock that they’d return to it, and it should be a million times less surprising that longtime holdouts would flip given the PGA Tour’s hypocrisy.