Masters champion Jon Rahm has referred to as for LIV Golf to maneuver to the normal 72-hole event format used on the PGA Tour, as the 2 circuits proceed to compete in opposition to one another.
Rahm introduced his determination to affix LIV in December for a reported $350 million multiyear deal after beforehand dismissing their 54-hole occasions, shotgun begins and no lower guidelines.
With golfers on each circuits having lately expressed opinions that the cut up between the 2 leagues shouldn’t be sustainable and that the game shortly must be reunited, Rahm instructed the BBC earlier than the Masters that he’d prefer to see the Saudi Arabia-backed circuit transfer to extra conventional guidelines.
“If there ever was a manner the place LIV might go to 72 holes, I believe it could assist all of this argument rather a lot,” Rahm instructed the BBC. “The nearer I believe we are able to get LIV Golf to another issues the higher. I believe it could be for some sort of unification to feed right into a world tour or one thing like that.
“I do not know if I am alone on this, however I undoubtedly would not thoughts going again to 72 holes.”
PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and members of the coverage board, together with Tiger Woods and different participant administrators, met with Yasir Al-Rumayyan, governor of Saudi Arabia’s Public Funding Fund, within the Bahamas on March 18.
The PIF, which has financed the LIV Golf League the previous three years, is contemplating investing, presumably for as a lot as $3 billion, in PGA Tour Enterprises, the brand new for-profit entity the PGA Tour fashioned with Strategic Sports activities Group earlier this yr. Led by Fenway Sports activities Group, SSG is a consortium of billionaire sports activities staff house owners, athletes and celebrities.
The World No. 3 additionally stated his determination to affix LIV Golf from the PGA Tour might show to be a tipping level within the sport as the 2 circuits proceed to compete in opposition to one another.
“That is a well-thought-out argument. I may very well be the beginning of a tipping level in that sense,” Rahm stated. “I understood the load that [my] determination might have and the impression it might have. I understood that completely and that is why it wasn’t a straightforward determination.
“The stability of golf may very well be disturbed just a little bit. Fortunately in my profession, particularly final yr, I achieved rather a lot and I obtained to be one of many greater names in golf. There are few energetic gamers that would have had an even bigger impression than myself in that sense. To not be patting myself on the again an excessive amount of, however I understood the place I used to be in.”
Rahm, who’s one in all 13 LIV Golf League gamers who will probably be competing within the Masters this week, will try and defend his crown at Augusta Nationwide when the event will get underway Thursday.
ESPN’s Mark Schlabach contributed to this report.
