The Masters champion Jon Rahm believes there is a feeling of “betrayal” among the world’s leading golfers after the PGA and DP World tours secretly cut a deal to join forces with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.
Golf was rocked last week by the sudden announcement that a new entity, funded to the tune of billions by PIF, will oversee the sport’s elite level.
For two years, traditional tours have sat in staunch opposition to LIV Golf, which is controlled by Saudi Arabia. Rahm, like Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods, had no clue that the agreement was pending. The merger will understandably dominant discussion at this week’s US Open, with many golfers unhappy about the nature of its formation.
Rahm is relaxed but senses disquiet in the locker room. “There’s a lot of unanswered questions,” he said. “It’s tough when it’s the week before a major, trying not to think about it as much as possible. 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.
“I think the general feeling is that a lot of people feel a bit of betrayal from management. I understand why they had to keep it so secret. I understand we couldn’t make it through a PAC [player advisory council] meeting with more than 10 minutes after, people spilling the beans right away in some article by you guys [the media]. So I get it. I get the secrecy.
“It’s just not easy as a player that’s been involved, like many others, to wake up one day and see this bombshell. That’s why we’re all in a bit of a state of limbo because we don’t know what’s going on and how much is finalised and how much they can talk about, either.”
The Spaniard’s sentiment is sure to increase focus on Jay Monahan, the PGA Tour’s commissioner. Monahan defended tightknit discussions over what, for now, is a framework proposal. Rahm revealed he threw his phone into a drawer for hours in the immediate aftermath of the PIF plan being confirmed.
“I was just having my normal morning, making coffee and breakfast,” he said. “Texts just started flowing in. I thought my phone was going to catch fire at one point. There were so many questions that I just couldn’t answer.”
Brooks Koepka, the recently crowned US PGA champion, joined the LIV circuit in 2022. He refused to confirm whether he would definitely pursue a route back to the PGA Tour next year, which should now be possible. “I’m not going to play the what-if game,” Koepka said. “If it happens, it happens. If it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen.”
It has been revealed Monahan partly blamed a lack of support by US Congress in the earlier dispute with the Saudis for the need to form an alliance. Litigation between the PGA Tour and LIV, and vice versa, has stopped but the US government has been urged to investigate the detail of their unlikely arrangement by the leader of a Senate subcommittee.
In a letter to senators, dated 9 June, Monahan said: “During this intense battle, we met with several embers of Congress and policy experts to discuss the PIF’s attempt to take over the game of golf in the United States and suggested ways that Congress could support us in these efforts.
“While we are grateful for the written declarations of support we received from certain members, we were largely left on our own to fend off the attacks, ostensibly due to the United States’ complex geopolitical alliance with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This left the very real prospect of another decade of expensive and distracting litigation and the PGA Tour’s long-term existence under threat.”
Monahan compared the new entity to that operating in several other business areas with PIF backing. He added: “Let me be clear that despite numerous reports, this arrangement is not a merger between the PGA Tour, LIV Golf, and the PIF. The PGA Tour will at all times hold the majority of the board seats and be in control of this new entity, regardless of the size of PIF’s investment.”
