We know where Jon Rahm is playing this week. But where the major champion twice and LIFE Golf pro tee it up next year is an open question.
Rahm is in Ireland this week to compete in the 2026 Amgen Open Irisha DP World Tour event that draws an impressive field from the LIV and PGA Tour ranks, including Rory McIlroy.
LIV Golf’s 2026 season, however, ended later coming to an abrupt and early end at LIV Indianapolis last month, and the future of the league is uncertain. Following the Saudi Public Investment Fund’s decision to take over the funding, the league hopes to create a new LIV Golf 2.0 for next season.
But LIV leaders need two key things to happen to make it a reality. First, they need to find big-money investors willing to support the league into 2027 and beyond. Second, LIV needs to keep their biggest stars like Rahm on board to play next year.
And these two goals are connected: Without guarantees that the star players will stay, investors will be less willing to sign with the league and put the millions of dollars needed to make it work.
Rahm is still under contract with LIV Golf for the next few years, but with the league teetering on the brink of dissolution, and with many millions still owed to Rahm, it’s an open question whether or not he’ll play through the end of his contract.
Rahm on return to PGA Tour: “I still have a contract with LIV 1.0”
On Tuesday, BBC Sport caught up with Rahm in Ireland before the Irish Open and asked him directly if he would be a part of LIV’s future, or if he was aiming to rejoin the PGA Tour.
Rahm’s blunt answers didn’t clarify his intentions, but they did raise some other questions.
“There’s just a lot of things going on, right? There’s a lot of things that could happen, and it’s one of those things where time will tell,” Rahm began.
The reporter asked Rahm if he wanted to see a path back to the PGA Tour for himself, and Rahm again brushed off the question, responding that he was still under contract with LIV.
“Well, you know, I still have a contract with LIV 1.0 that I’m more than willing to fulfill,” Rahm said. “So, like I said, time will tell.”
That Rahm specifically said “LIV 1.0” is important. LIV CEO Scott O’Neil discussed his vision for the future of the league, referring to it as LIV 2.0. Rahm signed his LIV contract in 2023one worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
It is possible that the new LIV 2.0 could not fulfill the contract that Rahm originally signed. In other words, Rahm could be careful that if LIV pays him what he owes, he will continue to play for the league.
After that qualified answer, the reporter pressed Rahm on the issue, asking if, if his LIV contract fell or the league was completely, he wanted to return and play on the PGA Tour.
But Rahm wasn’t willing to take the bait, simply replying, “We’ll see what happens.”
Whether or not the PGA Tour provides a path for Rahm to return is another question. Brian Rolapp, CEO of the PGA Tour and some Tour players have suggested that the temporary program of returning members Brooks Koepka used to rejoin the PGA Tour, and that Rahm was also proposedit would not be available to LIV players who did not take up the offer the first time.
The other option for Rahm should LIV fold would be to play mainly on the DP World Tour in 2027 and earn his way back to the PGA Tour through the official routes available on the European circuit.
As Rahm said, time will tell.