Who’s next?
That’s one of the question floating through golf circles after Jon Rahm’s bombshell move to LIV Golf on Thursday night.
It is expected that Rahm’s four-player LIV Golf team will be filled out with players currently on the PGA Tour.
Golf Digest reported that it might go beyond that with sources telling the site “Rahm might not just get his own team, but that LIV could create another club to accommodate a potential exodus from the PGA and DP World Tours.”
Rahm’s defection had been speculated for weeks, but who will follow him is a bit muddled.
Spanish site Ten Golf speculated that Tony Finau and Tyrrell Hatton would be possibilities to follow Rahm to the rebel league.
The Telegraph reported that Jason Day and Adrian Meronk could defect earlier this week, though both denied it.
“It’s still not for me,” Day told reporters on Wednesday. “I know there’s rumors about me going. They’re totally false. I don’t know where these rumors start… I haven’t had any connection to LIV.”
Meronk’s response came in the form of posting his PGA Tour and DP World Tour cards on Instagram.
“I think when guys get thrown money at them, everyone’s got a number in the end,” Day said before Rahm’s move was official.
“I hope he makes the right decision by him and his family. It doesn’t matter to me. If he leaves, it makes my job easier because I don’t have to compete against him. I want him to be happy. That’s all that matters in the end.”
Rahm’s splashy move comes with talks between the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund — the group that monetarily supports LIV Golf — restarting next week after a framework of a deal was agreed to in June.
A report from Barstool’s Dan Rapaport described the PGA Tour in “chaos” with players divided on whether to accept Saudi money or go with a different investor.
The deadline for an agreement between PIF and the PGA Tour is Dec. 31.
