Jon Rahm: A lot of players feel ‘betrayal from management’ over Tour-PIF deal
LOS ANGELES – The fallout from last week’s groundbreaking agreement between the PGA Tour and the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia continued Tuesday at the U.S. Open.
Although players had no details about the “framework” agreement that will create a new, for-profit entity, dubbed “NewCo” internally, that will be funded by the PIF, there continued to be plenty of handwringing about the secrecy of the deal and the Tour’s sudden change of direction.
Jon Rahm was asked Tuesday at Los Angeles Country Club what he believed is the most important unanswered question.
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“It gets to a point where you want to have faith in management, and I want to have faith that this is the best thing for all of us, but it’s clear that’s not the consensus,” Rahm said. “The general feeling is that a lot of people feel a bit of betrayal from management.”
Players were informed of the agreement with the PIF, which owns 93 percent of LIV Golf, at the same time the Tour released a public statement on the deal last Tuesday.
“I understand why they had to keep it so secret. I understand we couldn’t make it through a [Player Advisory Council] meeting with more than 10 minutes after people spilling the beans right away in some article by you guys already being out there. I get the secrecy,” Rahm said. “It’s just not easy as a player that’s been involved, like many others, to wake up one day and see this bombshell. That’s why we’re all in a bit of a state of limbo because we don’t know what’s going on and how much is finalized and how much they can talk about, either.
“It’s a state of uncertainty that we don’t love, but at the end of the day, I’m not a business expert. I’d like to think they’re going to make a better decision than I would, but I don’t know. There’s still too many questions to be answered.”
The agreement, which will include the DP World Tour and LIV Golf, is set to go before the Tour’s policy board for a definitive vote June 26.