LIV Golf's Jon Rahm offers thoughts on 'tricky situation'

Jon Rahm says he believes it would be 'better for everybody' if the PGA Tour finally agreed a deal with LIV Golf's backers. 

The PGA Tour claimed it was closer to an agreement with Saudi Arabia's PIF in February following crunch talks at the White House with Donald Trump.

Trump met with PGA Tour boss Jay Monahan as well as player director Adam Scott and LIV's mastermind and PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan. 

Their meeting was held off the back of Tiger Woods' optimistic comments about getting the men's game heading in the right direction once again.

"We're going to make it happen," the 15-time major champion said during the Genesis Invitational at Torrey Pines. 

But two months later it appears there are no signs whatsoever that an agreement will ever be reached to officially end the split in men's pro golf. 

According to a bombshell report by the Guardian, the PGA Tour even rejected a $1.5bn investment proposal from the PIF before The Masters.

Said offer was said to be contingent on LIV operating independently and appointing the aforementioned Al-Rumayyan as the co-chairman of PGA Tour Enterprises.

Rahm told reporters after the conclusion of LIV Golf Mexico - where Joaquin Niemann clinched his fifth victory on the breakaway - that it was a 'tricky situation'.  

"Obviously we're in a situation where it's a bit unknown how it [a deal] could affect the world of golf long-term and the environment we have right now, and I do believe, yeah, if there was some kind of agreement reached, it would be better for everybody," he said.

"There's enough love for the game worldwide for all of us to have a place to play, and I think there's a solution out there."

Rahm added: "Now, none of us sitting up here are in charge and we don't know what that looks like because we're not lawyers and there's a lot of things going on, but I do believe there's an opportunity, and I've said this many times, to create something special. 

"I think we're in a spot where there's more attention into golf than in the past from other parts of the world and different people, and I think with the right attitude and the right minds put together, something really cool and something really special could happen that would be beneficial for everybody."

LIV Golf started in 2022 and lured some of the top players on the PGA Tour thanks to huge signing fees and prize purses.

Rahm officially joined LIV in December 2023 and is understood to have agreed a multi-year deal in the region of £450m ($566.4m). 

Reigning U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Cameron Smith, Patrick Reed, Sergio Garcia and Bubba Watson were among the first wave of recruits. 

In June 2023, the PGA Tour, European-based DP World Tour and the PIF announced a shock 'framework agreement'. 

The PGA Tour have been in protracted negotiations with the PIF ever since.