Rahm missed out on winning his second-straight LIV title on Sunday, losing out in a playoff to Brooks Koepka following a dramatic final round in West Virginia. Partway through his final round, Rahm was chasing down his rival and had a putt for birdie at the par-four 14th to move to 18-under for the week.
As the Spaniard hit his downhill putt from around 10 feet a spectator in the Greenbrier crowd was heard crying: "The Tour misses you, Rahm, the Tour misses you," before his effort just missed on the low side.
The former world No. 1 became one of LIV's biggest signings at the end of 2023 after he penned a record-breaking deal worth a reported $600 million to join up with the Saudi-backed circuit. Nine months on, it was reported by Golf Digest heading into this week's event that Rahm would happily hand back his millions to return to the PGA Tour.
"I am 100 percent positive that if Jon could give the money back to the Saudis and come back to the tour, he couldn't write the check fast enough," an unnamed insider alleged. Rahm had previously claimed he hoped a deal between the two rival circuits could be completed which would allow him to play across both tours.
“What opened the door a little bit was that PGA Tour and LIV agreement,” Rahm said Per Golf.com earlier this year. “So when that happened, I was like, well, we are definitely coming together. There is something happening, so at least I owe it to myself to hear what they have to offer and what their vision is.
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"I figured I owed it to myself to hear them out, which is what I did when the season was over.” Since then, however, a deal has yet to be officially signed off, with the PGA Tour and Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia continuing to negotiate a deal that will benefit all parties.
Amid the reports of Rahm's unrest, LIV CEO Greg Norman fired back at the claims. "I read an article yesterday about how Jon is so unhappy here [LIV Golf] and that he wants to give back his money. It's just not true," he said on Saturday. "You speak to Jon's general manager, it's like laughable. I just truly don't get it. I truly don't get the divide.
"The division is still there when we are actually showing how we do work within the ecosystem and how the ecosystem is accepting us and how the people are speaking out there. I just don't understand why it is this way. It tells you there is some deep seeded something there. But we are going to keep plowing through it and stay true to ourselves."
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