Regardless of LIV Golf’s fate with world ranking points, Jon Rahm wants to see a new major pathway for the league…
“I’ll be honest,” Jon Rahm begins. “It hasn’t been perfect all around, right?”
The Spaniard has not hit a competitive golf ball since early last October and is reflecting on what has been the longest break of his professional career.
“There’s been some days where I wake up, and my body is so used to having [only] four to seven weeks off, where I wake up in early December and be like, ‘Oh my God, I’m starting tomorrow!’ And then I’m like, ‘No, not yet.’ So getting adjusted to that has been tricky, just understanding the timing and the process. But I’ve been able to work on some things that I haven’t in the past – the main aspect being family.”
Rahm, talking to TG ahead of LIV Golf’s 2026 season-opener under the lights in Riyadh, has three young children with wife Kelley at home in Arizona. “I’ve seen a significant difference with my relationship with my kids, just being home,” he says. “And actually, early on, taking time off of golf and being able to be dad, it’s been absolutely fantastic.
“So in that sense, it’s been wonderful. I think I said it in October, we’ll see if I’ll do it again or not. But I can see myself at least taking two off or more months in the future. “I think once you get going again, it’s more of the same, right? You don’t forget.”
By his own dizzying standards, Rahm’s 2025 was steady if unspectacular. He won LIV’s season-long Individual Championship – owing to 12 top-10 finishes in 13 starts – but, for the first time in his professional career, he went the entire season without a tournament win.
The euphoria of Ryder Cup glory at Bethpage at least sated Rahm’s craving for the winning feeling. “We won it as a team,” he says. “I was very close individually many times, won the Ryder Cup. So in essence, in a weird way, I feel like a very, very accomplished player at the same time.
“I can see how easily you can maybe criticize that aspect of a year, but there’s so many other ways where it’s been fantastic that I still finish the year thinking, OK, it’s been wonderful.”
It is unclear at this stage, though, if Rahm’s upcoming season will end as abruptly as his last.
“Luckily, with having DP World Tour events and things like that, if I don’t 100% love the way I feel next year, I can always play the events in November and there’s even some events in December and January that I could play if I needed to so I’m not overly concerned. I feel good.”
Indeed, Rahm remains a DP World Tour member as he awaits his appeal into penalties imposed on him for playing in conflicting LIV events. He has racked up $3million in fines since joining LIV in 2024.
Despite a blunt challenge from Rory McIlroy to prove his dedication to the Ryder Cup and remain eligible for Team Europe, Rahm has not indicated he is willing to settle his sanctions before an unknown court date. He was asked for an update on the fines situation in Riyadh.
“I don’t know what the negotiations look like,” Rahm says. “Obviously they’re going to players individually to make different deals.
“I don’t know what it may be or what it’s going to look like but I’m happy to see that, looking for a path forward for LIV players to be able to play on both tours and not to get penalized.”
TG understands that these negotiations with individual players are at an early stage and that a deal to drop fines completely for LIV players competing on the DP World Tour is not imminent.
So uncertainty still surrounds Rahm’s future in the European game, but we do at least know that his immediate future is with LIV Golf. Rahm has not decided not to follow Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed out of the exit door and back on to the PGA Tour. That’s despite the olive branch offered to him via the rival circuit’s new hastily-arranged Returning Members Program.
“I’m not planning on going anywhere,” Rahm said during last month’s LIV media event in Florida.
Despite the fervent speculation during this offseason, Rahm has been focusing on his first event as Legion XIII captain and says the league’s move to 72 holes is “absolutely massive”.
There have been conflicting views from the other high-profile LIV players, but Rahm has lobbied for the league to mirror the established tours by moving to the more traditional format. He is also encouraged by changes made to the relegation zone and new points system.
“When I joined, it was very, very early on and it was a rough product,” he explains. “If you go tournament per tournament, compared to the big tours where they have 40 plus events a year, we’ve had three seasons of 14 and one of eight. Basically a season and a half in compared to the PGA Tour, and the DP World Tour. So take it like that, they’re making a lot of strides.”
It is widely recognized that LIV’s controversial move away from its 54-hole founding principle came as part of a wider effort to finally claim Official World Golf Ranking points. Yet on the eve of its season-opener, the league is still waiting for an answer from the OWGR board.
“I know LIV submitted the final application,” Rahm says. “I can’t say how long it’ll take or not, I have no idea. But I’m hopeful we’re going to be able to start earning points through LIV.”
Rahm, however, is also in favour of a separate pathway to majors for LIV’s best performing players.
“Hopefully [LIV] get recognized through majors as well and get a direct pathway,” he says. “That would be obviously fantastic for the league. And I think it would be fair to the players that are here to have a shot.”
Last year, the R&A and the USGA both made changes to their exemption criteria which now means the leading LIV player not already exempt will qualify for both The Open and the US Open.
The Masters and the PGA Championship have also handed discretionary invites to LIV players.
But LIV are pushing for more access to the most important tournaments in the men’s game. Rahm, who is exempt into all four majors until 2028, was asked how many exemption spots the majors could hypothetically hand to LIV from the league’s increased 57-player field.
“I think on the conservative side I would say 10,” he speculated. “Ambitiously I would say 15. It might be too much. It’s just a work in progress. First you need to get points and then you can create more avenues.”
Rahm, meanwhile, also reiterated his hopes for a LIV Golf event on a links course in Ireland as preparation for the Open Championship.
“I think it helps to have the week off before,” he said, discussing Valderrama’s move from the eve of the Open to early June on the LIV schedule. “But I would love to have an event in Ireland in general. Obviously, with the Ryder Cup in mind, I get that Irish golf is focused on that and you already have a big Irish Open. So I don’t blame them for that.
“So maybe after ’27, there’s a chance to have a LIV event over there. It should be links, especially if you can have it before the Open. I think we deserve a links [event].”