We’ve all been in relationships — business, professional, an awkward holiday party conversation — where we just wanted out. In the I’ve-had-enough moment, you’d be willing to give up a whole lot to extract yourself. But would you be willing to give up nine figures of owed revenue to get out of said relationship? Jon Rahm apparently was, and thus he’s brought a decisive, definitive close to his days as a LIV Golf player and team captain.
Rahm and LIV have reached a separation agreement where the reigning LIV Golf individual champion and captain of Legion XIII will be free to leave the onetime breakaway tour. Equally significant: Rahm has released all claims on LIV for future money owed, a figure that could total as much as $100 million.
The separation agreement must be approved by a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge on Nov. 5, per ESPN.
LIV Golf is in an existential battle right now. The tour’s Saudi-backed “Golf, but louder” days are nothing but a pastel and club-music memory. As it proceeds through bankruptcy, LIV is attempting to gather both investors and players for “LIV 2.0,” a tour that would crisscross the planet while giving players the chance at unprecedented equity in the venture.
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Rahm, however, decided to go a different path, and burned the boats behind him. “Mr. Rahm has independently reviewed the proposed terms of LIV 2.0,” his attorney John Beck said earlier this month, “and has determined that those terms are unacceptable to him, and he will not be participating going forward in LIV 2.0.”
As part of the separation agreement, Rahm will forgo all equity interest in the team which was formed upon his arrival in LIV three years ago. He will, however, retain the rights to his name, image and likeness, as well as terms such as “Rahmbo” and “Legion XIII,” his team’s name. (He won’t be able to use “Legion XIII” in a golf context, such as a TGL team.)
Regardless of the potential value of team equity, Rahm was still owed a significant amount of money by LIV — more than $7 million as noted in bankruptcy documents, with a potential $100 million still remaining on his reported $300 million deal he originally signed with LIV. Rahm was LIV’s largest unsecured creditor in bankruptcy proceedings.
It’s impossible to view Rahm’s stance as anything other than a severe blow to LIV’s hopes for a second act. So much of LIV’s appeal was based on the star power of its most notable players, with Rahm — the three-time individual champion — at the very top of that list alongside Bryson DeChambeau. With Rahm gone and DeChambeau still a free agent, LIV’s attractiveness to investors drawn to golf celebrity has dimmed significantly.
For his part, Rahm is clearly demonstrating a willingness to put LIV Golf behind him. He’ll likely need to play his way onto the PGA Tour the way his former LIV colleague Patrick Reed is doing; PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp has not indicated he’ll re-offer the rapid pathway that Rahm declined earlier this year. Rahm is next slated to play in the DP World Tour’s Abu Dhabi Championship in the first week of November.
For LIV, these next two weeks will be crucial ones. The tour is attempting to determine whether it will even continue as a viable concern; LIV’s attorney Robert Fitzgerald indicated this week that the tour will announce by the end of the month whether it’s proceeding forward or closing down entirely.
Either way, LIV’s days with Rahm are done. There were highlights, there were celebrations, there were substantial paychecks — but in the end, there wasn’t enough to keep Rahm around any longer. And he was willing to give up an astounding amount to make the split permanent.