Jon Rahm would likely take the same deal Brooks Koepka got to return to the PGA Tour. The Spaniard said so Tuesday at Yas Links, speaking publicly for the first time since leaving LIV Golf.
“Most likely, yeah. Why not?” Rahm said. “Yeah, but it’s a big if. I seriously doubt I get offered the same deal that Brooks did. But yeah, if I got offered exactly the same penalties as him, I probably would do it, yes.”
Rahm is in the field at the Abu Dhabi Aldar Championship, the first leg of the DP World Tour playoffs. It is his first start since his LIV exit and since the birth of his fourth child, which forced him to withdraw from the Spanish Open in October.
Rahm had only good things to say about his time with LIV. “Well, I would say I can only reflect on those three years as a positive,” he said. “It was a wonderful experience. Played a lot of good golf. Obviously individually and as a team, we did great.”
The restructured league was a different story. “As much as I liked the project and the idea on, let’s say, LIV 1.0, I wasn’t thrilled with the changes they were doing to 2.0 and I just wasn’t willing to follow that path, right,” he said. “It wasn’t anything special, anything that stood out. I just, yeah, I didn’t like what they were doing with 2.0.”
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Pressed on what turned him away, Rahm pointed to the league’s direction. “Too many unknowns at the time and there are still quite a few,” he said. “It seemed like it was going away from team golf and some of the things that made LIV, LIV. It just became more of a regular tour. So yeah, it wasn’t really ever much of a consideration to be honest.”
Rahm signed with LIV in December 2023 as the reigning Masters champion. He played 38 events as captain of Legion XIII, winning four and finishing inside the top 10 in 33. He also won the league’s individual season title in all three of his seasons.
The money was historic. Rahm’s LIV contract was estimated at $300 million, and he topped Forbes’ list of the highest-paid golfers for three straight years, most recently at $111 million. LIV’s bankruptcy filings showed the league paid him more than $26.6 million in the year before it filed for Chapter 11.
He walked away from the rest of it. Rahm was listed as LIV’s largest unsecured creditor, owed about $7.5 million in past-due payments, and was widely reported to be owed more than $100 million on the remainder of his deal. His separation agreement releases all of those claims and gives up his equity in Legion XIII.
In return, Rahm gets back his name, image and likeness, plus the “Rahmbo” and Legion XIII marks. The agreement lets him join any tour or league without LIV’s consent. Judge Michael B. Kaplan is scheduled to rule on it Thursday, the same day Rahm tees off in Abu Dhabi.
For now, his 2027 plan runs through the DP World Tour. “As of right now, I really don’t know what 2027 is going to look like for me, right,” Rahm said. “So I have yet to have a discussion with the PGA Tour to see if there’s any path back for next year. So I don’t know, as of right now.”
“Until I get clarity on that, yeah, my plan would be to spend the year on the DP World Tour, and I’m looking forward to it,” he continued. “Currently looking at the schedule to see how I can organise it to play the events I want to play. You know, maybe have a chance to have a bit of a different year to what I have in the past.”
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Rahm said even the worst case works for him. “Obviously Brooks was able to go back through certain circumstances. I don’t know if the possibility of that would be open for me or not,” he said. “But if I have to fulfill a one-year suspension, I think it’s a pretty good position to be that a worst-case scenario I get to play on a wonderful tour for a whole year.”
He also committed to Europe either way. “I will be supporting the Tour, for sure, and even if I get to go and play PGA Tour events, I’ll still play European Tour events, as well,” Rahm said. “I’ll play some events that I want to play like I’ve done in the past and maybe a few more.”
Rahm was one of four players offered a one-time deal under the PGA Tour’s Returning Member Program in January 2026. Koepka accepted. Rahm, Cameron Smith and Bryson DeChambeau did not.
Koepka’s return came with a $5 million charitable donation, no FedEx Cup bonus money in 2026 and no access to the tour’s equity grants for five years. He also had to qualify his way into signature events. Koepka played 16 events this season and finished 94th in the FedEx Cup.
PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp has said that offer won’t be repeated. “This is a one-time, defined window and is not a precedent for future situations,” Rolapp said in January. “Once the door closes, there is no promise that this path will be available again.”
Rolapp has held that position since LIV Golf’s bankruptcy filing. Rahm, a 10-time DP World Tour winner, enters this week 51st in the Race to Dubai. The top 50 after Abu Dhabi advance to next week’s DP World Tour Championship, an event he has won three times.
