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Jon Rahm rejects LIV 2.0 terms and will leave the league
Jon Rahm's lawyer told LIV Golf's bankruptcy court that the terms for the restructured league are unacceptable. A separation deal is being negotiated, and six more players have asked to end their contracts.
Jon Rahm will not play in “LIV 2.0”. At a hearing in LIV Golf’s Chapter 11 case in New Jersey on Wednesday, his lawyer, John Beck, told the court that Rahm had looked at the proposed terms for the restructured league on his own and would not be part of it.
According to Golf Channel, Beck said Rahm “has determined that those terms are unacceptable to him”. He added that Rahm and LIV are now working on a separation agreement, which they hope to finalise by 15 October.
Rahm’s contract is part of the bankruptcy, and LIV has asked the court for permission to reject it. According to Yahoo Sports, Beck told the court that if the two sides cannot agree terms, Rahm will keep fighting LIV’s motion to reject his contract at a hearing on 5 November. The deadline for signing up to the new league, set by LIV’s rescue backer BC Partners, is 25 October. Golf Channel notes reports that Rahm was given a later deadline of 5 November, the day his case was already due back in court (our story from yesterday).
Court filings put the payments owed to Rahm that are already past due at around $7.5 million, the largest unsecured claim among the players named. Golf Channel, citing The Athletic, says the total owed to him could be more than $100 million once the rest of his deal is counted. That second figure has not been confirmed in court.
The National reports that lawyers for Bryson DeChambeau, Byeong-hun An, Cameron Smith, Cameron Tringale, Marc Leishman and Matthew Wolff all asked the judge on the same day to let their clients end their LIV contracts, and to make clear whether they can talk to other tours and sponsors. That does not automatically mean they are leaving; the same report says talks about their joining LIV 2.0 are continuing. Sergio Garcia is already out of his contract. Yahoo Sports also reports that Adrian Meronk, Sunday’s winner at the Alfred Dunhill Links, does not plan to join the new league.
The restructured league would be 52.5% owned by players, backed by a $300 million package led by BC Partners, with a smaller schedule and smaller purses (our explainer). LIV chief executive Scott O’Neil said this week the league was making real progress towards a player-owned, team-focused tour.
Rahm was LIV’s biggest signing. He joined in December 2023, eight months after winning the Masters, and won LIV’s season-long individual title three years in a row. He turned down the PGA TOUR’s one-off Returning Member Program earlier this year, the route Brooks Koepka took back to the tour, and the PGA TOUR has made no promise to welcome back other LIV players. He has won his national open on the DP World Tour three times.
Rahm is at home rather than in Madrid, having withdrawn from the Open de España with his fourth child due.
Sources
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