Jon Rahm on LIV's Phil Mickelson: "I don't know WHY he said that!"

Former World No.1 Jon Rahm was confused at why Phil Mickelson said the PGA Tour was "trending downwards" at the LIV Golf Jeddah Invitational.

Speaking ahead of the CJ Cup, Rahm certainly disagrees with the six-time major champion as he did back in February after Mickelson accused the PGA Tour of "obnoxious greed."

Lefty expressed his delight that he chose LIV Golf which he believes is "trending upwards" and he declared "I love the side that I'm on." He went on to finish 37th in Saudi Arabia.

Despite his opposition to the LIV Golf Tour and his strong words during the BMW PGA Championship, Rahm has not been as staunch as Rory McIlroy and Billy Horschel in their defence of the PGA Tour.

The Spaniard wants LIV Golf players to play at the Ryder Cup in 2023, but as for Mickelson's comments, this was a situation he couldn't get his head around.

"Man, I love Phil, but I don't know what he's talking about. I really, I really don't know why he said that," Rahm said.

"There have been some changes being made, but it doesn't necessarily mean it's going down, right? I truly don't know why he said that. Don't know. I really, I really don't know.

"I think there are some great changes being made and great changes for the players on the Tour. I truly don't know what drove him to say something like that."

Drastic changes have been made to the PGA Tour 2023 schedule which is set to turn the WM Phoenix Open, the RBC Heritage, the Wells Fargo Championship and the Travelers Championship into Elevated Events.

When Tour commissioner Jay Monahan first announced that the 'top 20' players have committed to playing 20 events this season, Rahm was surprised considering he must also fulfil extra obligations on the DP World Tour to be eligible for the Ryder Cup.

Each of the Elevated Events will have a prize purse of at least $20 million and the FedEx Cup bonus pool has been increased to $75 million. Rahm believes that further talks need to take place so that players like him and McIlroy don't burn out ahead of the event in Rome.

"A lot of it is going to have to be a combination of discussions with the European Tour for people like Rory and I where we have those 20 events to play for the PGA Tour and then you need to add three or four more for the European Tour, right, plus the events you want to play," Rahm added.

"You don't want that number to get too high and for us to play more golf than we want to play before the Ryder Cup or after the Ryder Cup."