In April 2025, Jon Rahm said it was “unfair”. Rahm had been at LIV Golf for over a year and lamented being judged on his poor major record in 2024 rather than the overall state of his game, including his performance in LIV events.
“Consistency is something I always pride myself on. I think last year the state of my game was judged unfairly based on how I played here and at the PGA compared to how I actually played throughout the year,” Rahm said at Augusta National. “While I understand why, I don’t think it was the most fair state of my game. It’s something – statistics top 10 is something I’m always proud of. Just before joining LIV, I think I was always close to 50 percent worldwide in all my beginnings finished the top 10, which is something I’m proud of, and it’s not easy to keep it that way.”
Rahm knew then that he would be judged on his performance in the four majors. When you’re a generational talent and two-time major winner, those weeks shape your legacy. The same is true of Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler, Bryson DeChambeau and others, regardless of the tour that tees up. When Rahm left for LIV, he was the defending Masters champion, had just won four times in one year, and was arguably a top-three player in the world. Everyone expected it to continue. But then Rahm defected and struggled in the majors. It was only natural that the fingers pointed to the only thing that was different: the tour he played.
In three years at LIV Golf, Rahm played in 11 majors. He scored four top-10s and missed two cuts. He had a legitimate chance to win the 2025 and 2026 PGA Championships. Otherwise, he was a relative non-factor at the major for three seasons of his first. In the three years before Rahm left for LIV, he had seven top-10s in 12 majors, won two and didn’t miss a cut.
It’s all in the past now. LIV Golf is deadafter declaring in bankruptcy court last week that it was winding down operations, ensuring that LIV Golf 2.0 will not happen. Rahm had already decided to leave LIV Golf and then he went on to win in his first post-LIV start last week in Abu Dhabi. It was Rahm’s first win outside of LIV since his defection. After looking like the Jon Rahm of old as he held his first trophy out of LIV, the Spaniard was asked if playing more on the DP World Tour – and eventually the PGA Tour – he will regain the big killer game that we once saw pre-LIV U-turn.
It’s a question Rahm has been battling since he left for LIV. It has been asked in many forms, with many caveats. But Rahm’s response Tuesday came with a question and an admission. The blame for his poor major record was his and his alone.
“We have to stop blaming LIV for me playing badly at the majors,” Rahm said before the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai. “I know what everyone is trying to insinuate. It’s not because of LIV. It’s my own. Because I had the opportunity to win the PGA the last two years we played, right. It’s my own and my own, let’s say, golf-swing problems.
“I hope that what I have been working on recently can be something that makes me more consistent on the bigger stages.”
Rahm said his problems in the majors in 2026 were due to some swing issues he was trying to fix. It’s easier to navigate your way around a course while compensating for your swing when the pressure isn’t turned up to 11, he said. It is not the case at the four events of the year that matter most.
“I’ve been playing really good golf this year,” Rahm said. “It’s just that, unfortunately, some of my not so good weeks happened to be in the majors, right. Besides the PGA where I had a decent chance to win, the other three majors, I didn’t do a good enough job. In general, really well, but those tournaments matter so much to all of us that, you know, they take a little bit of me.
“When the pressure is greater and the stage is the biggest is when those mistakes will be accentuated and this is somewhat what happened.”
Rahm’s only two chances to win a major since his LIV defection came at the 2025 and 2026 PGA Championships. In 2025 at Quail Hollow, Rahm made a furious charge Sunday to catch a scuffling Scottie Scheffler at the turn, but faltered down the stretch as he tried to keep his foot on the gas to stay with Scheffler. A year later, Rahm entered Sunday’s Aronimink as the favorite, but couldn’t get going during the final lap as Aaron Rai roared past him and a host of contenders to lift the Wanamaker.
It was that week outside of Philadelphia that Rahm explained why the final round of the 2025 PGA Championship it was the most fun he’d ever had playing golf since his move to LIV. It was the product of returning to the contention of major championships and evidence that things are not always as they seem.
“It’s been really fun to be out in the landscape today, where as actors at LIV, we’re hearing a lot of things from the articles, from social media, from the comments,” Rahm told Aronimink. “While I understand why things are said, it’s something you have to face. That Sunday, playing against Scottie, who has the lead, and feeling the support and love from the crowd is what makes it really nice. You understand that sometimes the truth is very different from what (is) made out to be. … It was an achievement to have such support from the crowd and to play a good way of golf that made me understand from the real public, as it made me understand from the public. contrary to what you sometimes read.”
That Sunday at Quail Hollow, and the following week at Aronimink, also reminded Rahm of what he was, and what he can be again.
We will never know for sure. Rahm’s relatively poor play in the majors could be due to LIV. Maybe the league, its pace, format and depth of talent didn’t prepare him well in a way that it did for Bryson DeChambeau. Maybe his game hit a dip when he joined LIV, and the regression that often comes in golf came at the exact time of his flip. Perhaps the decision weighed on him, and the pressure to silence the rumor he admitted he heard made it harder for him to play his best on the biggest stage. As always, people are free to draw their own conclusions, Rahm included.
But LIV’s days are over, and Rahm is turning the page, hoping the next chapter will include a return to his world-leading form — one that will wash away any questions of lost years.