Jon Rahm’s victory in season-ending LIV Golf event adds $22 million to his bank account

With discussions between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf’s financiers, the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund (PIF), ongoing, men’s professional golf remains fragmented. The PGA Tour, in June last year, created a framework agreement that aims to bring PIF on as a minority investor. This past week, officials from the PGA Tour met with representatives from PIF in New York. With no news coming from those discussions, and with LIV Golf Chicago and the Irish Open, two entertaining tournaments playing out on either side of the Atlantic, the game seems no closer to unification.

Rahm, meanwhile, pressed on with his new circuit. His 2024 season on LIV was nothing short of spectacular and was a yearlong reminder that golf fans deserve to see the world’s best players competing against each other more often than just the four majors. Rahm won twice and finished inside the top 10 in all 12 of his LIV starts, eight inside the top five.

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His results put him in pole position on the points standings entering LIV’s final event at Bolingbrook Golf Club, three points ahead of Joaquin Niemann. While Niemann was the only other player who could steal the title from Rahm, a handful of other high-profile pros, Tyrrell Hatton and Sergio Garcia, were trying to claim the tournament itself.

But Rahm put them to the sword when he birdied the par-3 17th to ensure he stood on the 18th tee with a three-shot lead. When an $18-million bonus is on the line, a three-shot cushion is far more comforting than two. Rahm made par and shot 66 to finish three rounds at 11 under par.

“Today was a special day in many ways,” Rahm said. “I woke up really nervous today, as I thought I would, and even warming up, I told [caddie] Adam [Hayes], ‘man, I’m nervous.’”

He didn’t look nervous as he held off runners-up Niemann (66) and Garcia (68), while Hatton (65) was fourth.

Rahm earned $22 million—$4 million for LIV Chicago and $18 million for the season-long title—increasing his on-course winnings from LIV in 2024 to $37.9 million.

But LIV’s place within golf’s ecosystem remains a puzzle that it needs to solve. Niemann, second on its standings, is not in any of the four majors next year because the league does not receive World Ranking points for its 54-hole events.

After the LIV team finale next week, attention will soon turn to the status of the framework agreement and the outcome of those New York discussions.

Rahm’s move to LIV from the PGA Tour was hoped by some to accelerate those discussions. That has not happened yet.

“I wouldn’t say bumpy road, but definitely windy,” Rahm said when asked to describe his first season on LIV. “I made the decision to join LIV Golf, fully confident that I can make an impact, and you deal with the emotions of that decision, the impact of the media, good and bad, and then going out to the season trying to win.”

Meanwhile, stars from the PGA Tour and LIV will play against each other in December in a made-for-television match, with McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler facing Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau in Las Vegas.

Rahm, while he won’t be part of that match, welcomed such developments.

“Ever since I joined, and I believe before, I felt like we should do what we can to … we have an opportunity to create a new stage for golf in the world of sports that could be better than what we had before, and I feel like we should take advantage of this situation,” Rahm said in his pre-tournament press conference in Chicago.

LIV Golf did well to fight for attention in 2024, but it remains just one player in a fragmented market. Hopefully for golf fans, those players are soon on the same team.