The best Spanish golfer since\u00a0Seve Ballesteros, Jon Rahm from Biscay, did not show up at the Club de Campo de Madrid to compete in the\u00a0Spanish Open, a tournament he holds dear and has already won twice.<\/p>\n
The reason given for his withdrawal was the\u00a0imminent birth of his daughter, the fourth child in the Barrika native\u2019s family. However, it is more than likely that Rahm also did not want to have to provide too many explanations regarding his split with\u00a0LIV Golf, the Saudi league, which the Spaniard has won in the three years he has competed in it: 2024, 2025, and 2026.<\/p>\n
The formal announcement was not made by the golfer himself but by his American attorney,\u00a0John Beck, of the law firm Dentons US LLP, during the hearing regarding the Saudi League\u2019s restructuring process under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. According to Beck, \u201cMr. Rahm, after independently reviewing the proposed terms offered to him by\u00a0LIV 2.0\u00a0[the newly restructured competition], has determined that they are unacceptable to him.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) decided to withdraw from the competition before last summer, after having contributed\u00a0$5 billion\u00a0and concluding that the expected goals\u2014both in terms of media coverage and revenue from fan attendance, which was expected to be massive\u2014had not been met.<\/p>\n
At the same time, the worsening situation of\u00a0an undeclared war in the Middle East\u2014which has had serious repercussions in the Kingdom of the Desert\u2014prompted an immediate withdrawal from LIV Golf, leading the organization\u2019s leadership to file for bankruptcy last September under\u00a0Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. This process allowed for a supervised legal restructuring, rather than the immediate liquidation of the company and the resulting complete halt of all its sporting and commercial activities.<\/p>\n
Although there are still loose ends to be tied up regarding whether or not the upcoming season of\u00a0LIV 2.0\u00a0will take place, the fact is that virtually all of its stars had begun exploring other paths for their professional careers as soon as they realized the truth behind the increasingly persistent rumors. And, as its biggest star,\u00a0Jon Rahm\u2019s decision to leave the Saudi tour dashes many hopes regarding its viability.<\/p>\n
The drastic cut in earnings being proposed to the golfers eliminated the main incentive to stay. In Rahm\u2019s case, according to the\u00a0Financial Times,\u00a0Rahm is owed more than\u00a0$100 million, of which $7.4 million is from the third quarter of this year, when the PIF decided to pull out and\u00a0LIV Golf\u00a0was deprived of its vital financial contribution.<\/p>\n
In any case, the Spanish golfer wants to reach a\u00a0negotiated solution\u00a0as soon as possible\u2014one that should be agreed upon before mid-October and would be subject to judicial oversight and\u00a0approval\u00a0at a hearing already scheduled for November 5.<\/p>\n
Rahm needs to definitively close the chapter on his\u00a0Saudi chapter\u00a0as soon as possible before deciding on his new athletic roadmap. As a member of the\u00a0DP World Tour, he will now be able to compete in tournaments on that circuit, but he will not be able to do so on the PGA Tour, from which Rahm departed with a bang.<\/p>\n
Of course, its American leaders won\u2019t be rolling out the red carpet for him, judging by how they\u2019ve treated other\u00a0\u201cprodigal sons\u201d\u00a0with major titles to their credit, such as Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed.<\/p>\n
In addition to paying a\u00a0hefty fine\u2014disguised as a donation\u2014they are barred for a set period from receiving a large portion of the profits allocated to players. Jon Rahm is no ordinary player, having already reached the pinnacle as the\u00a0world\u2019s best player.<\/p>\n
However, the\u00a0PGA has also demonstrated\u00a0that it can subdue even the greatest champions and continue to maintain its dominance in world golf.<\/p>\n
The reality is that\u00a0LIV Golf was created\u00a0to challenge the American Professional Golfers\u2019 Association and contest its overwhelming dominance. To that end, it poached not only Rahm but also several of the world\u2019s most decorated champions from the PGA Tour. Four years and\u00a0$5 billion\u00a0later, the PGA has knocked out its Saudi\u00a0challenger.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The best Spanish golfer since\u00a0Seve Ballesteros, Jon Rahm from Biscay, did not show up at the Club de…","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13634,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"csco_display_header_overlay":false,"csco_singular_sidebar":"","csco_page_header_type":"","csco_page_load_nextpost":"","csco_post_video_location":[],"csco_post_video_location_hash":"","csco_post_video_url":"","csco_post_video_bg_start_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_end_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_volume":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[7843,7842,7844,122,1602],"class_list":["post-13633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-arabia-saudi","tag-espana","tag-l","tag-liv-golf","tag-saudi-arabia","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@fogolf\/117407192434481826","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}