AUGUSTA, Ga. — Jon Rahm insists he made the right choice, switching from the PGA Tour to LIV Golf and, in the process, widening the schism between golf’s establishment and its potential breakaway future. But he also lives in Phoenix, home of the chaotic, gleeful WM Phoenix Open, and that means he has an up-close look at one of the Tour’s marquee events.
“Driving by Phoenix as often as I had to,” Rahm said Tuesday morning, “seeing the stands, and knowing that I wasn’t going to be there, was quite hard.”
Once you’ve reached a certain level of prominence in the golf world — which generally happens right around the time you put on a green jacket for the first time — every door opens wide. You’re welcomed into rooms and worlds most others will never see, and at Augusta National, for instance, you’re welcome for life.
So it’s got to be a bit jarring for someone like Rahm, the defending Masters champion, to see doors that once stood wide open to him are now locked and barred shut.
“There’s some venues that I miss not being at, not only because I won but just because I love it, right?” he said. “And that’s the reason why I played well in those tournaments. Not being at [early-season PGA Tour venues] Palm Springs, Torrey, Phoenix and L.A. wasn’t the easiest.”
Rahm’s leap to LIV was the most stunning defection this side of Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, not just because of Rahm’s previous pledge of “fealty” to the Tour, but because of what Rahm represents: golf’s limitless international future.
Tuesday morning, he defended LIV’s 54-hole, no-cut, team-oriented, sparsely-attended events, and whether he sounded like he was preaching the good word or just making excuses probably depends on your feelings on LIV Golf in general.
“I’ve had a lot of fun playing in those events. The competition’s still there,” he said. “Yeah, they’re smaller fields, but you still have to beat some of the best players in the world and you still have to play at the same level you have to play on the PGA Tour to win those events. So that doesn’t change.”
The issue for Rahm — and for LIV Golf as a whole — is that the entire breakaway enterprise is still defined by its opposition to, and separation from, the Tour. Yes, it’s competition. Yes, it’s a new challenge. Yes, team golf is a distinctive wrinkle. But for Rahm, and for others on LIV, there’s still something to be said for the old ways.
“I still love the PGA Tour, and I still hope [for] the best, and I still hope that at some point I can compete there again.”
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