STERLING, Va. — Two-time major leaguer Jon Rahm said he has several years left on his contract with LIV Golf and doesn’t see “many options out there,” as the league tries to find new funding after Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund announced it would withdraw funding after this season.
During a press conference Tuesday ahead of this week’s LIV Golf Tournament at Trump National Golf Club, Rahm also revealed that he has settled his long-running dispute with the DP World Tour over his unpaid fine for playing conflicting events without exemptions.
The settlement allows the former world No. 1 to re-qualify to compete against the European team in next year’s Ryder Cup.
“Right now, I still have several years left on my contract,” said Rahm. “I’m sure they did a great job when they drafted that, so I don’t see many ways out. Right now, I’m not thinking about it because we still have a season to play and great players to compete with. It’s not something I want to think about right now.”
Rahm, 31, is the only two-time defending LIV Golf champion and leads the league in points this season with two wins and three finishes. The PIF announced last Thursday that it will not be sponsoring LIV Golf this season.
Rahm said Tuesday that LIV golfers were told there would be PIF funding “for many years.”
“Honestly, I think the initial news and rumors over there in Mexico, since we’re in the week of the championships, I almost tried to pretend it was just a rumor,” he said. “Because we are competing, I didn’t want to waste energy in a week that was already difficult thinking about it.
“For me, the real kind came later. I would say, like everyone else, [I was] surprised. Obviously, [it was] unexpected. We have heard news that there will be funding for many years. But as far as the future of the league goes, I think that’s a question for the businessmen. “
Earlier on Tuesday, LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil told the media that the league is in the process of developing a business plan, protecting golfers, and taking the league to market.
O’Neil replaces former LIV Golf CEO and commissioner Greg Norman in January 2025.
The league lured top golfers from the PGA Tour with guaranteed contracts worth more than $100 million — Rahm reportedly earned $300 million over the years — and purses that have now reached $30 million.
PIF has invested more than $5 billion in the fracking circuit since its inception in 2022, and that amount will grow to more than $6 billion by the end of the season.
“I knew right away that we were going to have to scale this business, and now we find ourselves in that position,” O’Neil said.
O’Neil said he received about a dozen phone calls from potential investors this past weekend, including private equity firms and other high net worth individuals.
“It’s early,” O’Neil said. “We haven’t hit the market yet. We haven’t finalized our business plan. We’re still kind of picking and browsing, but we have a good mindset at this point, you know, 10 days. We know where we’re going, and now we’re going to tighten the screws.”
Whatever happens, O’Neil said LIV Golf will not deviate from its focus on club golf, which has set it apart from other professional golf leagues around the world. He believes that selling shares of LIV teams such as Legion XIII, Crushers GC and RangeGoats GC will create the most value.
“If you ask me where the value of this business is, it’s in the teams,” said O’Neil. “If you’re looking for guidance, we believe the teams will have extraordinary value. We believe that once we get the business on the right path, with the right trajectory, with the right revenue base and the right cost base, which we’re on track to do, that these teams will have extraordinary value.”
England’s Tyrrell Hatton, another member of Rahm’s Legion XIII team, also said he has several years left on his LIV Golf contract.
“We want to be here,” Rahm said. “It’s been a lot of fun. I want to keep competing. I want to keep sharing some time with him [my teammates]but time will tell. Obviously, I think Scott and his team have a tough job to do. “
O’Neil said it’s too early to say whether LIV Golf will have to move forward with reduced purses and fewer tournaments each season to keep costs down.
“I think that the captains and owners of the teams and players involved in the league must, in fact, have a majority that allows it to work,” said Rahm. “I believe that in order for the business plan to change, whatever they come up with, there will have to be some agreements with them.”
At least Rahm won’t have to worry about qualifying for next year’s Ryder Cup at Adare Manor Golf Club in Ireland.
Rahm and the DP World Tour have reached an agreement, with Rahm saying that both sides have worked together to reach an agreement.
“I didn’t worry about that,” Rahm said. “There were other things that I believed in that I wanted them to agree on. I knew it was a matter of time. I also understand that they have city rules, and they have to follow certain procedures, and things are never as easy or as fast as we think they will be — or at least I would like them to be. But I didn’t worry.”
On February 21, the DP World Tour granted eight of its members conditional exemptions, not including Rahm, to compete in LIV Golf League events this season. In its statement, the tour indicated that the golfers who were given exclusions paid their outstanding fines. Earlier, Rahm said he did not intend to pay the fine, which was reportedly up to $3 million.
Sources told ESPN that Rahm has paid the rest of his fine, in addition to fines for three concussion events this year. He didn’t earn Race to Dubai points for his Masters finish because he broke tour rules, but he will be eligible for next week’s PGA Championship and subsequent tournaments this season.
“The DP World Tour and Jon Rahm have reached an agreement on a conditional release to play in conflicting tournaments at LIV Golf for the remainder of the 2026 season,” the tour said in a statement on Tuesday. “This includes the payment of all outstanding fines incurred from 2024 to date, as well as participation in agreed upon DP World Tour events (excluding major events) for the remainder of the 2026 season.”
