Let’s take a detour, shall we? It’s January 2024, and everyone woke up to the news that Jon Rahm, everyone’s favorite PGA Tour player, had made the shocking decision to join LIV Golf. The move was seen as a major coup for the Saudi-backed league, which had been aggressively pursuing top talent to bolster its ranks. LIV Golf likely thought that landing Rahm, a four-time PGA Tour winner and former world number one, would be a strategic move to propel their growth and credibility in the golf world. With a reported signing fee of around $500 million over multiple years, Rahm’s defection was undoubtedly a significant investment for LIV Golf. Let’s see if it worked in LIV Golf’s favor. Spoiler alert, it didn’t!

The PGA Tour’s surprise suspension of Jon Rahm

It’s still surprising to think about, but the PGA Tour actually did it – they suspended Jon Rahm, one of their biggest stars, after he made the jump to LIV Golf. Many of us thought they’d find a way to keep him around, given his incredible talent and fan appeal. I mean, Rahm was a key player for the PGA Tour, with a string of impressive wins and a consistent presence at the top of the rankings. He was the kind of player who could draw huge crowds and bring excitement to any tournament he entered. So, when he announced his decision to join LIV Golf, many of us assumed that the PGA Tour would find a way to accommodate him, or at the very least, give him some kind of special exemption. But in the end, the tour stuck to its rules and suspended him, sending shockwaves through the golf world.

LIV Golf’s recruitment efforts

So, it looks like LIV Golf’s big-money offers haven’t been as effective as they’d hoped in luring top talent away from the PGA Tour. Despite reports of massive deals – we’re talking up to £50 million for Tyrrell Hatton and a whopping $85 million for Tony Finau – it seems like only Hatton has actually taken the bait. Finau and Viktor Hovland, both of whom were rumored to be considering jumps to LIV Golf, have since denied those rumors and committed to playing PGA Tour events.

It’s a bit of a surprise, to be honest – you’d think that kind of cash would be hard to resist. But hey, it looks like the PGA Tour is still the place to be for many of golf’s biggest stars.

Jon Rahm’s LIV move fails to bring sides together

So, remember when Jon Rahm made the jump to LIV Golf and everyone thought he’d be the key to bridging the gap between LIV and the PGA Tour? Yeah, that didn’t quite happen. In fact, despite Phil Mickelson’s optimistic take on Rahm’s move, the merger between LIV and the PGA Tour is still stalled, with no progress in sight. Rory McIlroy’s recent comments about reassessing his views on LIV Golf were seen as a positive step, but it seems like we’re still far from a resolution. The PGA Tour’s framework deal to merge with LIV, announced back in June, is still pending, and reports suggest that commissioner Jay Monahan is exploring alternative revenue streams, which might just mean the merger is off the table for good.

LIV Golf’s ranking conundrum

So, despite Jon Rahm’s high-profile move to LIV Golf, the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) hasn’t budged – LIV Golf events still aren’t doling out ranking points, and their golfers are ranked way lower than they’d like. Rahm himself has been vocal about the OWGR’s shortcomings, calling the system “laughable” and pointing out the disparity in points awarded to LIV Golf events versus PGA Tour events. Even with Rahm’s criticism, the OWGR remains unchanged, leaving LIV Golf players to compete without the ranking benefits they’d get from playing on the PGA Tour. It’s a tricky situation and one that doesn’t seem likely to resolve itself anytime soon.

LIV Golf’s viewership woes

LIV Golf’s struggles to attract viewers are no secret, and the numbers are pretty damning. Despite boasting big-name stars like Brooks Koepka and Jon Rahm, LIV Golf’s latest event at the Greenbrier drew a paltry 136,000 viewers on Saturday and 165,000 on Sunday on the CW – numbers that were actually outdone by the Pro Pickleball Association’s Bristol Open, which pulled in a whopping 295,000 viewers on Fox. And it’s not just LIV Golf that’s feeling the pinch – the PGA Tour’s FedEx St. Jude Championship saw a staggering decline in viewership, with its final round on NBC drawing just 2.2 million viewers, down from 3.2 million the previous year. It’s clear that the golf divide has taken a toll on viewership, and it’s going to take some serious effort to win back fans.