Jon Rahm withdraws from LIV Golf after rejecting terms for relaunch

Jon Rahm on 7 October 2026 told a bankruptcy hearing he will quit LIV Golf and will not participate in the breakaway series’ proposed relaunch.

LIV Golf is undergoing Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in the United States after Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund withdrew its support at the end of the season; the fund had spent $5bn (£3.7bn) on the venture over four years. Some players, including Sergio García, successfully petitioned a court to lift the automatic stay on their contracts, freeing them to pursue other opportunities, but Rahm was not granted the same relief.

Rahm is identified in court filings as one of LIV’s two biggest names, along with Bryson DeChambeau, and is reported to be owed up to $150m (£113m) for the remainder of the contract he signed almost three years ago. That outstanding sum has been central to the negotiations surrounding any proposed LIV relaunch.

“Mr Rahm has independently reviewed the proposed terms of LIV 2.0 … and has determined that those terms are unacceptable to him, and he will not be participating going forward in LIV 2.0,” the former world No 1’s attorney, John Beck, told a bankruptcy hearing. The Athletic also reported Beck told the court Rahm and LIV are working to finalise a separation agreement by 15 October.

Rahm withdrew from this week’s Open de España in Madrid to remain at home because his wife, Kelley, is expecting their fourth child. In May, the 31-year-old settled his dispute with the DP World Tour by paying around £2.21m in fines for playing in competing events, a payment that produced conditional releases for 2026 and made him eligible for selection for the Ryder Cup.

He declined the PGA Tour’s reinstatement offer under a specially drawn-up returning member program created in January that was applicable only to him, Cam Smith, Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka; Koepka was the only player to accept that offer. Because he did not take the PGA Tour route, Rahm would have to serve a mandatory one-year suspension, up until late August next year, before he could return to the American circuit.

Rahm and LIV are reported to be working toward a formal separation by 15 October, and the pending one-year suspension remains the defined timeline for any potential return to American tour competition.