Jon Rahm believes the opinions of players are valued “to an extent” by those running the PGA Tour, but the world’s No. 2 player also admitted there is a sense of betrayal among the membership.
Rahm said he was at home making breakfast for his kids and wife Kelley on June 6 when text messages started flowing about a planned merger between the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF).
“I thought my phone was going to catch on fire at one point,” he said on Tuesday ahead of this week’s U.S. Open. “There were so many questions that I just couldn’t answer.
“At one point I told Kelley I’m just going to throw my phone in the drawer and not look at it for the next four hours because I can’t deal with this anymore.”
Rahm still doesn’t have any more answers a week later, which is part of his frustration. After more than a year of meetings, debate and questions about the LIV Golf League and the future of the PGA Tour, Rahm along with everyone else found out about the proposed merger via a press release.
“They’ve certainly heard us throughout the whole process and some of the issues. But we’re certainly in a spot in time where there’s a big question mark,” he said. “We don’t have any of the answers we’d like, so it’s hard to say.
“I think it gets to a point where you want to have faith in management, and I want to have faith that this is the best thing for all of us, but it’s clear that that’s not the consensus. I think the general feeling is that a lot of people feel a bit of betrayal from management.”
Like most players at the Los Angeles Country Club this week, Rahm offered a mixed viewpoint of disappointment in the PGA Tour along with a wait-and-see attitude. The 2021 U.S. Open and reigning Masters champion admitted it was tough to receive the “bombshell” news the week before a major, but he’s trying to focus on the task at hand.
“I understand why they had to keep it so secret,” he said of the proposed merger. “I understand we couldn’t make it through a (Player Advisory Committee) meeting with more than 10 minutes after people spilling the beans right away in some article by you guys already being out there. So I get it. I get the secrecy.
“It’s just not easy as a player that’s been involved, like many others, to wake up one day and see this bombshell. That’s why we’re all in a bit of a state of limbo, because we don’t know what’s going on and how much is finalized and how much they can talk about, either.
“It’s a state of uncertainty that we don’t love, but at the end of the day, I’m not a business expert. Some of those guys on the board and involved in this are. So I’d like to think they’re going to make a better decision than I would, but I don’t know.
“We’ll see. There’s still too many questions to be answered.”
–Field Level Media
