Reigning Masters Champion, Jon Rahm, set to join LIV Golf for massive payday

According to the Wall Street Journal (subscription required), Jon Rahm will be leaving the PGA Tour and is set to join LIV Golf. The deal is rumored to be worth upwards of $500 million.

There have been some whispers of this happening ever since the Ryder Cup wrapped up earlier this year. Rahm, who won The Masters in 2023, helped lead Team Europe to a gigantic victory over Team USA in the biannual tournament.

This latest news, however, represents a huge shift in star-power. While players like Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, and others have already turned in their PGA Tour cards in order to cash in with LIV Golf, Rahm will undoubtedly become the face of the Saudi-backed league.

Jon Rahm set to join LIV Golf for massive payday

There are already many moving parts when it comes to the PGA Tour and LIV Golf. There've been negotiations over the last several months involving PGA President Jay Monahan and representiatives from LIV Golf in regards to a possible union between what had once been two rival entities.

LIV Golf has shaken the very foundation of the professional golf world in ways that most fans don't like. While it's understood that the PGA Tour can't compete with the giant sums of guaranteed money the pros over at LIV Golf are raking in, the product itself is very different.

Golf has long been lauded as refined and respectable, but LIV turns the weekend event into a 54-hole party with dancing, live DJs, shotgun starts, and team play. Players may be still hitting a little white ball all over the course with hopes of getting it into the hole in as few strokes as possible, but the game itself is vastly different.

Jon Rahm is just the latest defector to join LIV Golf. The PGA Tour has now lost one of its best and brightest young stars, and it's anyone's guess as to what happens next.