Jon Rahm told by former PGA Tour pro: "I want to wring your neck"

Former PGA Tour pro Arron Oberholser raised eyebrows before the 2024 PGA Championship by declaring live on Golf Channel he wanted to 'wring' Jon Rahm's neck for the comments the Spaniard made in his pre-tournament news conference. 

Rahm spoke to reporters on 14 May before the second men's major of the year where he discussed a number of topics. 

Chief of which was the future of elite men's professional golf after a picture emerged of complete and utter disarray at PGA Tour HQ. 

In recent days Rory McIlroy was blocked from returning to the PGA Tour's policy board by Tiger Woods, Patrick Cantlay and Jordan Spieth. 

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Jimmy Dunne - a prime architect of the 6 June framework agreement - also quit the board citing the fact 'little progress' had been made with LIV/PIF as the reason for his decision. 

Despite Dunne claiming his voice was 'superfluous', Spieth and Woods claimed they were 'surprised' by his decision. 

Spieth lashed out at the media, too. 

Rahm was asked at Valhalla what his current thoughts were on the latest developments given he is now a LIV Golf League player. 

"See you guys keep saying 'the other side', but I'm still a PGA Tour member," Rahm said. 

"Whether suspended or not. I still want to support the PGA Tour. 

"And I think that's an important distinction to make. I don't feel like I'm on the other side. I'm just not playing there. That's at least personally. 

"I wouldn't know what to say because it would just be not hearsay, but hypothetical, because I don't know what's going on, right? 

Rahm continued: "I haven't really spoken enough to know about what's going on on the board, and obviously people are not going to be willing to be sharing that information with me since I'm no longer a part of those discussions, so I couldn't really tell you. 

"I'm going to say what I've said all along, I hope we reach a resolution and a resolution that's beneficial for everyone. But I couldn't really tell you much about what's happening."

The aforementioned Oberholser took issue with Rahm's comments, suggesting live on air that he wanted to 'wring' Rahm's neck through the screen. 

Here's what Oberholser said: 

Rahm's comments, unsurprisingly, were also picked up upon by Golf Channel contributor and Golfweek columnist Eamon Lynch. 

Lynch told the programme: "It's not often you hear the arsonist give advice to the firefighters on how to extinguish the blaze and start asking when he can move back into the house. 

"If he wanted to support the PGA Tour and, you know, present himself a loyal member as he does [then] don't be a stooge to the Saudis. 

"Don't sign up to be a willing leverage point as they attempt to upend or diminish the product you are claiming loyalty to. Own your decision."

Lynch added: "Jon Rahm just simply doesn't own the decision. He is presenting it as a purely commercial transaction - which is how a lot of players see it - but it's certainly not the reality of the scale of the decision Jon Rahm made at the end of last year. 

"The idea that he's considering himself a loyal member of the PGA Tour just not in good standing because of the suspension... it's just such a shocking level of naivety."

Before Rahm departed his news conference he was asked what future he would like to see for the game. 

Echoing the thoughts of McIlroy, the Spaniard argued that a world tour is the best bet. 

"Like I said many times, we have the opportunity to put golf on a different level of the map and make it more global than ever, and I fully support that idea," he said. 

Rahm will be playing the opening two rounds of the 2024 US PGA Championship alongside Rickie Fowler and Cameron Young. 

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