“A lot of people feel a bit of betrayal” - Jon Rahm says the LIV Golf x PGA Tour merger is in ‘a state of limbo’
Last year, when the PGA Tour and PIF announced their shock merger, Jon Rahm said that a lot of members felt betrayed by this move, considering how they were kept in the dark. This has been extensively covered in the second season of Netflix's 'Full Swing,' which was released on Wednesday, March 6.
The second season of Netflix's golf docuseries has covered all the LIV vs. PGA Tour drama in most of its episodes. In the show's second episode, we get to see Rahm's reaction to the shock merger. The press conference took place in June ahead of the US Open 2023, just a few days after the PIF and Tour announced their decision to come together under one entity.
The Spaniard had said that there were a lot of unanswered questions at that moment.
"You wanna have faith in management," he said. "I wanna have faith that this is the best thing for all of us. But it's clear that that's not the consensus, right? I think the general feeling is that a lot of people feel a bit of betrayal.
"It's not easy as a player that's been involved like many others to wake up one day and see this bombshell. So, that's where we're all in a bit of a state of limbo, cause we don't know what's going on, and I don't know how much is finalized and how much they can talk about," he added.
Rahm, however later decided to join the Saudi-backed circuit and became their biggest signing yet after accepting the reported offer of $550+ million. He is the owner of Legion XIII, the 13th team in the league.
What's next for Jon Rahm?
Jon Rahm will once again be in action this week as the LIV Golf heads to Hong Kong for the fourth event of the season. The event is set to begin on Friday, March 8, at the Hong Kong Golf Club in Sheng Shui.
Although Rahm has yet to win in the PIF-sponsored league, he has finished inside the top eight in all three events so far. He is currently third in the season's standings. Moreover, his team Legion XIII is also third in the team standings, having won one title and finished fifth in the other two. Tyrrell Hatton, Caleb Surrat and Kieran Vincent are the other three members of the Rahm-led squad.
Joaquin Niemann leads the individual standings and has already won two out of the three events played so far. In the team standings, Crushers GC is leading with a win and a runner-up finish.
Next month, the Spaniard will also look to defend his Masters Tournament title as he will enter his first Major as a LIV Golf professional.