Jon Rahm does not want to dwell on his decision to join LIV Golf as the future of the Saudi-backed breakaway hangs in the balance.
LIV’s long-term prospects remain in doubt after Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund announced plans to withdraw financing at the end of the year, having spent more than £4billion since 2022.
Some players, including Brooks Koepka, had already negotiated a return to the PGA Tour, which rewrote its rules in December to allow the five-time major winner to come back, subject to certain sanctions.
Rahm did not follow suit and remains under long-term contract with LIV, but last week reached a deal with the DP World Tour which will see him retain his membership and remain eligible for next year’s Ryder Cup.
The Spaniard says he is not in control of his future but is keen not to rewrite history when it comes to his choice to switch to LIV.
“I would say I’ve made a lot of decisions in my life and I’ve never gone back thinking ‘Oh, had I known this again, I would do X and Y different’.
“If I lived my life like that as a golfer, I would be a very pessimistic person.
“So we don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow and all we can do is learn from things that happen in the past good and bad. Just to speculate on what could have done, what could have been different doesn’t really make much sense.”
Asked what he had learned from the decision to join LIV, Rahm said: “That is for me to know.”
Rahm is keen to focus on what he can control – challenging for a third major title at this week’s US PGA Championship.
“It is something we’ve had to deal with but it’s just some things that are out of my control,” the 31-year-old added.
“Out of the few talents I have in my life, fixing a business is not one of them. I might be the worst person for that.
“It’s the people in charge of LIV, whose job I do not envy for a second, it’s their job to fix it.
“I have faith in the work that they’re doing. I have faith that they’re going to come up with a good plan.”
Rahm’s Ryder Cup team-mate Rory McIlroy was always one of the most outspoken critics of LIV but said last week that he would be open to its players returning to the PGA Tour.
Asked about the uncertainty over LIV’s future, McIlroy said with a broad smile: “Love talking about this!”
McIlroy was asked to reflect on his early view that the PGA Tour should make a deal with LIV, adding: “I’m glad I was wrong. I can admit when I’m wrong and that was one that I did get wrong.
“I think it (withdrawal of funding) was always a possibility to happen. I think everyone knows, like with everything that’s happening in the Middle East, that had a lot to do with it but whenever you have funding tied so much to the geopolitical landscape in the world, that’s a tricky road to navigate.
“Their priorities shifted and that leaves LIV in a pretty precarious spot but again that was always a possibility. I was hearing about this back in March, April time.
“It just feels like the rug was pulled from under their (players’) feet and everyone was sort of blindsided by it.
“But again, that’s the risk that those guys chose to take. There’s a lot of uncertainty in the air right now.”
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