Players Feel Betrayed Over Merger Plans – Rahm3 min read

Jon Rahm (right) practised with fellow Spaniard and LIV Golf player Sergio Garcia on Tuesday at the US Open in Los Angeles

“A lot” of PGA Tour players “feel betrayal from management” following last week’s announcement of the proposed merger with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, says Jon Rahm.

“I thought my phone was going to catch on fire at one point,” said Rahm.

“I told [my wife] Kelley I’m going to throw my phone in the drawer and not look at it for four hours because I can’t deal with this anymore.”

A week on from the news that shocked the golfing world – players and media alike – little more is known about the PGA Tour’s plans, or what will happen to LIV Golf, the PIF-funded start-up that has caused so much division in the game since holding its first event a year ago, at Centurion Golf Club, near London.

However, the deal, which also includes Europe’s DP World Tour, is being investigated by the US Senate because it believes “PIF’s role as an arm of the Saudi government and the PGA Tour’s sudden and drastic reversal of position concerning LIV Golf raises serious questions”.

PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, who has spent much of the past year criticising the Saudi regime when LIV was regarded as a hostile “existential threat” to the US circuit, was called a hypocrite and faced calls to resign at a heated players meeting in the wake of the announcement.

Rahm acknowledged the PGA Tour had “heard [the players] throughout the whole process” over the past 12 months, but added “we’re certainly in a spot in time where there’s a big question mark – we don’t have any of the answers we’d like”.

The Spaniard, who turned down a reported $200m (£159m) to join LIV, continued: “I think it gets to a point where you want to have faith in management, and I want to have faith that this is the best thing for all of us, but it’s clear that that’s not the consensus.

“The general feeling is that a lot of people feel a bit of betrayal from management.”

Rahm also said he understood the need for secrecy, so the news was not leaked to the media, but pointed out the “bombshell” has led to “a state of uncertainty that we don’t love”.

However, the reigning Masters champion, who is in Los Angeles this week trying to add to his 2021 US Open title, added: “I’m not a business expert. Some of those guys on the board and involved in this are.

“So I’d like to think they’re going to make a better decision than I would, but I don’t know. We’ll see. There’s still too many questions to be answered.”

World number one Scottie Scheffler is also in the dark. He was at the gym when he heard the news.

“I didn’t really know what was going on, still don’t really have a clue,” he said.

“I don’t really know what’s going to happen but I’m interested to see. Things are barely starting to take form with that whole deal, so I really just don’t know.”