‘Never say never’: Jon Rahm refuses to rule out investing his own money in LIV Golf

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[Photo: Tracy Wilcox]

At this point, it seems like a stretch to call LIV Golf a good investment. Yes, potential partners would be getting in at the bottom, and probably with favourable incentives given the desperate financial state of the formerly PIF-funded league. But even with the financial might of the Saudi Arabian oil-garchy behind it, LIV struggled to find footing with some golf fans. Why would now be any different?

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That wasn’t the only burning LIV question overnight (Australian time) at the Genesis Scottish Open, where Jon Rahm – having recently settled his debts with the DP World Tour – was asked whether he would invest his own money to keep the struggling league afloat. To the surprise of many, Rahm didn’t rule it out… at least not entirely.

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It was a valiant attempt at a non-answer from the two-time major winner, who has been around long to know how to play the press-conference game.

“Scott (LIV chief executive Scott O’Neil) is doing a lot of work trying to find developers,” Rahm told reporters at the Renaissance Club. “And there’s many ways around that, as far as putting my money into it, they have not asked me to do that yet.

“Something I’ve learned in life, never say never,” he continued. “I’m not going to say absolutely no to anything that can happen in the future.”

For almost every human in every situation, that is the truly honest answer. We never know exactly what is going to happen or how we will respond until we are in the moment itself. That’s just life. To say it out load in a room full of journalists, however, courts speculation and Rahm must have known this. He intentionally left the door cracked because he’s been through it before. Did anyone think he would leave the PGA Tour for LIV Golf until he did? No. The thing about offers you can’t refuse is that you rarely see them coming.

So we’ll just have to wait and see. Many in golf would be surprised, shocked even, if Rahm gave a chunk of his LIV windfall back in exchange for equity or competitive control or some other carrot, but for now the option is still on the table. Until it isn’t, the only thing we can say for sure is that Rahm will keep being asked about it.