04/27/24
December 07, 2023
Jon Rahm is Joining LIV Golf: The Saudis are paying Jon Rahm $300 million to leave the PGA and join LIV, which seems like a weird thing to happen when the rival leagues are on the brink of completing their merger to collectively ruin all remaining decency and virtue in the sport. In 2022 Rahm gave this reason for not wanting to LIV: "Would our lifestyle change if we got $400 million? ... I've never really played the game of golf for monetary reasons."
Ummm...these are some fantastic comments for the golf story.
Trying to play football on the golf links.
posted by Howard_T at 05:07 PM on December 07, 2023
Ha! That was the most fun programming error I made today.
posted by rcade at 05:17 PM on December 07, 2023
Good reminder that sports stars are not idols, they're normal people, prone to change their mind, and prone to be swayed by cold, hard cash. Rahm spent so much time talking about why he doesn't find LIV interesting and doesn't care about the buckets of money. But in the end, as he says plainly, "They really put me in a position where I had to think about it and I did."
As a Tour fan and a Rahm admirer, I am hoping that his plan is to play five years on LIV, then return to the PGA Tour when his majors exemptions run out. If there's a Tour left, that is.
posted by werty at 08:01 PM on December 07, 2023
My interest in golf had been casual aside from the majors. Now it is practically non-existent.
I'm not sure it matters that Rahm is taking the dirty Saudi money, since the entire PGA wants to take the dirty Saudi money.
posted by rcade at 08:31 PM on December 07, 2023
Man, Rahm seemed like he might have some integrity. Alas.
posted by tahoemoj at 12:51 PM on December 08, 2023
It's convenient that the Saudis don't have an extradition treaty with the US in case any golf loving former presidents need to flee to safe refuge in the face of mounting legal problems.
posted by beaverboard at 06:25 PM on December 08, 2023
Rahm has $57 million in career earnings and could've been expected to double that in the PGA before he retired.
He lives in Scottsdale, Arizona, with his wife and their two sons who were born the past two years.
I don't understand having that kind of money, earned through your play and the sponsorships that your achievements inspired, and thinking you also need another $200 million in dirty money from the Saudis.
How does $300 million change your life in any way that $100 million did not, unless you have some huge dreams of being a business mogul?
posted by rcade at 08:15 PM on December 08, 2023
It's because once you are rich, there's always someone who has a few million more than you do and that eats at some people.
Especially professional athletes. A lot of whom keep score.
Charles Barkley knows he has more money than Boomer Esiason.
posted by beaverboard at 10:13 PM on December 08, 2023
Ummm...these are some fantastic comments for the golf story.