With marquee golf tournaments few and far between in the latter stages of the calendar year, many fans’ focus is turning to the rumours concerning which players are set to jump ship from the PGA Tour and join LIV Golf.
LIV Golf struck a massive blow to the PGA Tour in late 2023 with Jon Rahm announcing that he would be joining the league with the Spaniard withdrawing from what was scheduled to be the first year of TGL ahead of the move.
There were claims Tony Finau had agreed a deal to join LIV. However, Finau has now confirmed that he will be staying with the PGA Tour. But Jay Monahan will probably still feel a little on edge while there are LIV teams waiting to complete their lineups for 2025.
What has potentially helped keep the rumour mill in business is the slightly underwhelming field for the Hero World Challenge. Finau himself, was set to play in the event before withdrawing. There do appear to be a number of players most fans could not see making the move. However, there are others who have been linked with a move to LIV on more than one occasion over the years.
The level of signings LIV Golf are now expected to make ahead of 2025
Speaking on Golf Channel Podcast about the depth of the field at Albany, Rex Hoggard suggested that there are likely to be some notable departures – even if LIV fail to strike a blow as seismic as the signing of Rahm 12 months ago.
“I think it has more to do with what you did touch on, the schedule. I think it probably has more to do with the idea of what players have endured this year. As you pointed out, the move to signature events, I think players had to play a lot more in a very, very extended window this year than they have in the past. It felt like everything was just magnified for a player, certainly when I talked with Scottie Scheffler about it this morning. He probably needed those two months after the Presidents Cup to unwind, to be a father, to be a family man, to just have an opportunity to take a deep breath. I think that probably has something to do with it,” he said.
“Certainly, there’s tons and tons of rumours. I had two caddies come up to me on Monday when I was in the airport just getting to the Bahamas, asking me about Tony Finau withdrawing from this event. Keep in mind, I think he’s just had surgery recently, so there was an injury involved which I think that could have something to do with it. He’s also scheduled to play next week, I think, in the team event. So I think all those things come into play. However, you don’t have to be a scientist to look at some of those LIV Golf teams and see they need to fill holes on the rosters. And I’m not going to sit here and tell you that I’m not expecting them to sign someone. I don’t think it’s going to be another Jon Rahm pre-Christmas bomb like we ended up with last year. But I still think that we’re going to end up with that trickle, and that’s going to be the reality.”
The problem LIV Golf faces after tempting Jon Rahm to jump ship from the PGA Tour
The last few years have shown that ruling anything out in the game of golf is extremely dangerous. A number of players have faced previous comments coming back to haunt them, with Rahm one of those who initially saw little upside in the idea of moving to LIV.
But as things stand, it seems that LIV is going to struggle to get any of the current superstars on the PGA Tour if they have not done so already.
Losing Rahm was obviously a big blow for the PGA Tour, but it did not appear to move the needle particularly far. So with that, it is hard to see LIV making the kind of signing which leaves the PGA Tour even more desperate to get around the negotiating table and thrash out a deal.
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