Just last week, Jon Rahm made it clear that he would not be joining LIV 2.0. Now, the two-time major champion is set to make his first start since leaving the upstart league he joined in late 2023.
Rahm has committed to play next month’s Abu Dhabi Championship, the second-to-last event of the DP World Tour season. The news came one day after that tour made a major anti-LIV move of its own.
Here’s what you need to know.
Jon Rahm to play Abu Dhabi Championship on DP World Tour
On Wednesday, in court for LIV Golf’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Rahm’s lawyers declared that the terms laid out by LIV for the future of the tour were “unacceptable,” and that Rahm would “not be participating” in LIV 2.0 in 2027.
With his LIV Golf career suddenly over, and an immediate PGA Tour return impossible, Rahm’s only realistic plan was to start playing the DP World Tour full time. The only question was when.
Now, Rahm is officially set to make the first start of the rest of his golfing life. The 2023 Masters champion is expected to tee it up at the Abu Dhabi Championship, which runs November 5-8 at Yas Links in Abu Dhabi, U.A.E.
It will be Rahm’s first start as a non-LIV Golf player since November of 2023. In December of that year, Rahm shocked the entire golf world by announcing he would be joining LIV Golf for the 2024 season. Rahm was reportedly offered $350 million in guaranteed money to sign with LIV. While it’s not known exactly how much of that money Rahm has been paid, he is the biggest creditor listed in LIV’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.
Rahm won LIV’s season-long individual title all three years he played in the league. During that time, he continued to play on the DP World Tour, including three non-major starts so far this year at the Scottish Open, Irish Open and BMW PGA Championship (he missed last week’s Open de Espana as he and his wife, Kelley, await the birth of their fourth child).
Despite having 10 DP World Tour victories in his career, Rahm has failed to win one since he joined LIV. The 2023 Masters was his last DP World Tour-sanctioned win. His most recent non-major European win came at the 2022 DP World Tour Championship.
Though Rahm’s decision to leave LIV came last week, a development that came this week may have forced his hand had he waited.
On Monday, the DP World Tour announced that it would not allow any player who signed with LIV 2.0 to play in DP World Tour events during the 2027 season. Many LIV players had considered playing both LIV and the DP World Tour next year, but now that will be impossible. They will officially be forced to choose between two distinct paths: LIV 2.0 or the DP World/PGA Tours.
Furthermore, should any player join LIV 2.0, they will surrender their DP World Tour membership and thus be rendered ineligible to play on the European Ryder Cup team.
Both of those realities are likely non-starters for players like Rahm.
As for when and where Rahm will make his second post-LIV start after Abu Dhabi, the very next week is a good bet. Rahm is a three-time winner of the season-ending DP World Tour Championship, which kicks off November 12 at Jumeirah Golf Estates in Dubai.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: golf.com
