Jon Rahm leaves Golf Channel analyst ‘incensed’ after PGA Tour comments

Jon Rahm left a Golf Channel analyst “incensed” after claiming that he still supported the PGA Tour even after his defection to LIV Golf.

Rahm made a mega-money switch to the Saudi-backed rival series late last year having previously been a vocal critic of the event.

It left the Spaniard unable to compete on the PGA Tour amid golf’s ongoing schism, though the 29-year-old pushed back on suggestions that he was from “the other side” ahead of the PGA Championship.

Asked for his perspective on the ongoing negotiations between the Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, Rahm took exception to the description.

“See you guys keep saying ‘the other side’ but I’m still a PGA Tour member, whether suspended or not,” the 2023 Masters winner said on the Golf Channel. “I still want to support the PGA Tour. And I think that’s an important distinction to make. I don’t feel like I’m on the other side. I’m just not playing there.”

LIV golfers remain eligible to compete at the majors, with Rahm hoping to better a disappointing defence of his green jacket at Augusta by challenging in Kentucky this week.

But the two-time major winner’s comments ahead of the first round at Valhalla riled pundit Aaron Oberholser, who believes that Rahm has no right to pretend he’s still on the PGA Tour’s side.

“He doesn’t get it,” Golf Channel’s Oberholser said. “To this day, he doesn’t get it. And this is a guy who wanted a position or wanted to be heard, from what I understand. Either a board position, policy board. He wanted to be heard on this whole thing before he went to LIV. And I feel like he wasn’t as heard as much as he probably should have been.

“And now I’m glad he wasn’t in that position because he doesn’t get it. As a PGA Tour player and as a PGA Tour member — still, a card-carrying PGA Tour member — and someone who supports the PGA tour, [who is] not happy with what’s going on right now, obviously, but supports the PGA tour. I’m incensed by that, quite honestly.

“You still don’t get it. You took [£500m], and then you’re going to sit there and tell me, oh, you still feel like a PGA Tour member. I mean, I want to wring his neck through the television. I’m that mad, right now. I’m that mad. I mean— and every player in that locker room right now, if they watch that — on the PGA Tour — should be absolutely incensed with him.”

Rahm will play the opening two rounds of the PGA Championship alongside Rickie Fowler and Cameron Young.