Saudi Arabia had been trying to seduce Jon Rahm for a long time and it seems that they have finally succeeded. As reported by The Wall Street Journal and confirmed by La Vanguardia, the Basque golfer has decided to leave the PGA Tour and join the LIV Golf league in exchange for an unprecedented contract of more than 500 million euros.
The announcement will be made official in the next few hours and in exchange for joining the league created by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, Rahm would have the largest contract that has ever been offered, above the estimated $100 million per year. that Phil Mickelson or Dustin Johnson receive.
According to various media, LIV Golf's offer would be $525 million in a contract until 2029 to capture the current Augusta Masters champion. And he is not the only one who has been tempted. The Saudi fund has already tried to sign Tiger Woods, without success, to whom they offered an amount that would be between 700 and 800 million euros per year.
Rahm, world number 3, had assured in the past that not even an offer of $400 million would make him leave the PGA Tour. But beyond the individual value that the hiring of Rahm may represent, the agreement with one of the most popular golfers of today occurs at a key moment for the world of golf since the two leagues are in the middle of a controversial process of fusion.
LIV Golf was created in 2021 with almost unlimited resources to compete with the PGA Tour and with one of the legends of the sport, Greg Norman, as CEO to wipe the rest of the professional leagues off the map.
From the first moment, LIV Golf has used the checkbook to attract PGA Tour golfers, such as Sergio García, Martin Kaymer and Graeme McDowell, which has caused a real civil war in the sport.
In June 2022, a group of about 2,500 people, relatives of victims or survivors of the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, criticized the Saudi league and applauded golfers who had refused to join LIV Golf. In June of this year, Northern Irishman McIlroy declared that he felt "hatred" towards the LIV Golf circuit and expressed his wish for it to disappear. But in June 2023, LIV Golf, PGA Tour and PGA European Tour surprisingly announced that they had begun a merger process that has not yet finished.
