As LIV Golf fades away, one Jon Rahm question remains. He has a firm answer

In April of 2025, Jon Rahm said it was “unfair”. Rahm had been on LIV Golf for over a year and bemoaned 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 that I’ve always prided myself on. I think last year the state of my game was being unfairly judged based on how I played here and at the PGA compared to how I really played throughout the whole 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 — top 10 statistics is something I’ve always prided myself on. Right before joining LIV, I think I was still close to 50 percent worldwide in all my starts finishing top 10, which is something I pride myself on, and to keep it going that way is not easy.”

Rahm knew then that he’d 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 they tee it up on. When Rahm left for LIV, he was the defending Masters champion, had just won four times in a year, and was an undoubted top-three player in the world. Everyone expected that to continue. But then Rahm defected and struggled in the majors. It was only natural that fingers were pointed at the one thing that was different: the tour he played on.

In three years on LIV Golf, Rahm played in 11 majors. He notched four top-10s and missed two cuts. He had legitimate chances to win the 2025 and 2026 PGA Championships. Otherwise, he was a relative non-factor at the majors for three seasons of his prime. 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.

That’s all in the past now. LIV Golf is dead, having declared in bankruptcy court last week that it would wind down operations, ensuring that LIV Golf 2.0 will not happen. Rahm had already decided to leave LIV Golf and then went on to win in his first start post-LIV 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 while hoisting his first trophy outside LIV, the Spaniard was asked whether playing more on the DP World Tour — and eventually the PGA Tour — would bring back the major-killer game we once saw pre-LIV U-turn.

It’s a question Rahm has been battered with since he left for LIV. It’s been asked in many forms, with many caveats. But Rahm’s answer on Tuesday came with a request and an admission. The fault for his poor major record was his and his alone.

“We’ve got to stop blaming LIV for me playing poorly at the majors,” Rahm said ahead of the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai. “I know what you are all trying to insinuate. It’s not because of LIV. It’s my own. Because I did have a chance to win the PGA the last two years we played it, right. It’s my own doing and my own, let’s say, golf-swing problems.

“I hope that what I’m working on recently can be something that makes me more consistent on the biggest stages.”

Rahm said that his issues at the majors in 2026 were due to some swing issues he was trying to iron out. It’s easier to navigate your way around a course while compensating for your swing when the pressure isn’t ratcheted up to 11, he said. That’s not the case at the four events of the year that matter most.

“I’ve played really good golf this year,” Rahm said. “It’s just that unfortunately some of my not-so-good weeks happen to be in the majors, right. Besides the PGA where I had a decent chance of winning, the other three majors, I didn’t do a good enough job. Overall really good, but those tournaments matter so much to all of us that, you know, kicking myself a little bit over that.

“When the pressure is at its biggest and the stage is the largest is when those mistakes will be accentuated and that’s a little bit 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 Sunday charge to catch a scuffling Scottie Scheffler at the turn, but he faltered down the stretch while trying to keep his foot on the gas to stick with Scheffler. A year later, Rahm entered Sunday at Aronimink as the favorite, but he couldn’t get it going during the final round as Aaron Rai roared past him and a host of contenders to hoist the Wanamaker.

It was that week outside of Philadelphia that Rahm explained why the final round of the 2025 PGA Championship was the most fun he’d had playing golf since his move to LIV. It was the product of returning to major championship contention and evidence that things are not always as they seem.

“It was really fun to be out there in the landscape nowadays, in which, as players in LIV, we hear a lot of things from articles, from social media, from comments,” Rahm said at Aronimink. “While I understand why things are being said, it’s something you have to deal with. That Sunday, playing against Scottie, that has the lead, and to feel the support and love from the crowd is what made it really enjoyable. To realize that sometimes the truth is very different from what [is] made up to be. … It was a realization of having such support from the crowd and playing good golf that made me realize in a way how I’m truly perceived from the public, as opposed to what I read sometimes.”

That Sunday at Quail Hollow, and the week that followed at Aronimink, also reminded Rahm of what was, and what can be again.

We’ll never know for sure. Rahm’s relative poor play in the majors could be due to LIV. Perhaps the league, its cadence, format and talent depth didn’t prepare him properly in a way that it did for Bryson DeChambeau. Perhaps his game hit a dip just as he joined LIV, and the regression that often comes in golf arrived at the exact time of his flip. Perhaps the decision weighed on him, and the pressure to silence noise 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 includes a return to his world-beating major form — one that will wash away any questions of lost years.