A report suggested that Jon Rahm regretted his LIV Golf and was wanting a return back to the PGA Tour, and now LIV CEO Greg Norman has had his say on the claims
Greg Norman hit back at the Jon Rahm report (
Image: Angel Martinez/Getty Images)
Greg Norman has hit back at claims that Jon Rahm would happily hand back his LIV Golf riches in order to make a return to the PGA Tour.
On Friday, a Golf Digest report revealed that Rahm was keen to go back on his £450 million deal with the Saudi-backed series in a bid to regain his playing rights on the PGA Tour. “I am 100 percent positive that if Jon could give the money back to the Saudis and come back to the tour, he couldn’t write the check fast enough,” an anonymous source claimed.
The report comes just eight months after the former world No. 1 penned a record-breaking deal with the Saudi-backed series, which ultimately cost him his spot on the PGA Tour.
In that time, Rahm has won over £10.5 million in prize money, and banked his first ever LIV title at LIV Golf UK at JCB Golf and Country Club late last month. Amid the reports of unrest from the Spaniard during this week’s LIV event at Greenbrier, Norman has fired back.
During coverage of the second round on Saturday, the Aussie CEO claimed: “I read an article yesterday about how Jon is so unhappy here [LIV Golf] and that he wants to give back his money. It’s just not true. You speak to Jon’s general manager, it’s like laughable. I just truly don’t get it. I truly don’t get the divide.”
Norman went on: “The division is still there when we are actually showing how we do work within the ecosystem and how the ecosystem is accepting us and how the people are speaking out there. I just don’t understand why it is this way. It tells you there is some deep seeded something there. But we are going to keep ploughing through it and stay true to ourselves.”
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Jon Rahm joined LIV Golf in 2023 ( Getty Images)
The ‘division’ Norman is referring to is the ongoing fallout at the top of the game between the Saudi-backed series and their PGA Tour rivals, despite the latter being in negotiation with the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia over a peace deal.
Over one year from an initial framework agreement, a deal is yet to be signed of between the two sides. Speaking ahead of the beginning of the FedEx Cup playoffs this week, PGA Tour comissioner Jay Monahan provided an update. “They’re very complicated discussions,” he claimed.
“There’s a lot of elements to them. When you have the level of interaction, we’re continuing to meet and move forward and discuss and debate, you can’t be anything but hopeful. As it relates to times and timeframes and where we are, I’ll just say we’re in a good place with the conversations. That’s the most important thing.”
