A big payday may have cost Jon Rahm his friendship with Tiger Woods.
Rahm bolted the PGA Tour for LIV Golf in December for a deal reported to be somewhere between $300 million to $600 million.
The decision felt like a tipping point as the reigning Masters champ did not deal with the same level of scorn that others who have defected to LIV did, and even has gotten public support from Rory McIlroy, who previously had been among the harshest critics of the rebel golf league.
Woods may not have gotten the memo.
Rahm was asked by ESPN’s Marty Smith on Sunday if he had heard from McIlroy and Woods since the decision.
And while he confirmed that he has spoken with McIlroy, the same cannot be said for Woods.
“Tiger? No, not really,” Rahm, 29, said. “I mean, Tiger, I texted him and the people that try to reach out, you know, the process, when I signed and I just let him know, ‘Hey, you know, this is a personal decision.’”
Woods has been outspoken against LIV in the past and reportedly turn down overtures from the league.
He was asked about Rahm’s decision at the PNC Championship in December.
“Well, there’s been a lot of talk over the years of certain players going, and it was speculation until it happened because there’s been rumors of names going and not going, and whether they materialized or not …” Woods said, according to Golfweek.
“So we assumed it was just speculation until it happened.”
Since Rahm’s move, McIlroy has done a complete about face and argued for LIV golfers playing in the Ryder Cup.
“Rory has been supportive publicly of my decision and he was privately as well,” Rahm said.
Rahm opened up in the ESPN interview about his reasons for leaving the PGA, and unlike most of those who defected he admitted that money played a role in his decision.
“I don’t want to skip through this point because there’s no point; [LIV Golf offered a] big change in the way golfers get compensated,” Rahm said.
“I’d be lying if I said that wasn’t a big part of it. In a nutshell, I’m getting paid more to play the same sport while [having more free time]. I don’t know about most people, but that sounds great to me.”
LIV Golf has 12 tournaments scheduled this year and is less of a grind than the the PGA Tour.
However, Rahm had spoken out in the past about LIV’s three-day, no-cut tournaments and how that would not work for him given his competitive nature.
Rahm has finished tied for third and eighth in his two LIV tournaments thus far.
Woods, whose goal is to play a tournament each month, was forced to pull out of the Genesis Invitational with the flu two weeks ago in his first event of the year.
Both Rahm and Woods will be in the field for The Masters in April.
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