Jon Rahm Says He Misses Defending PGA Tour Titles After Taking LIV Money

Jon Rahm seems to be pretty upset about the consequences of his own actions.

The 29-year-old defending Masters Champion has been busy creating an exceptionally delicious looking menu for his Champions dinner next month.

READ: Jon Rahm's Champions Dinner Menu Shows Why You Shouldn't Be Sleeping On Spanish Food

But he's also found time to discuss how difficult it's been for him to see PGA Tour events go by without being able to compete in them. Barstool Sports' Dan Rapaport posted Tuesday on X about recent comments Rahm made about some signature events during the PGA Tour's early season.

"For everyone who said this was going to be easy," Rahm explained, "Not being able to defend titles I want to defend, it hasn't." He continued by specifically mentioning The Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club, won by Hideki Matsuyama, as well as the Sony Open in Hawaii. As well as his home tournament in Arizona: "Hard not to be at [the WM] Phoenix Open," he concluded.

It's enough to make you wonder who might be responsible for Jon Rahm not being able to compete at those tournaments.

Jon Rahm and Brooks Koepka on the tee box at Augusta National Golf Club during the 2023 Masters. (Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images)

Jon Rahm Looking For The Guy Who Did This

Despite what Rahm said when announcing his jump from the PGA Tour to LIV Golf, that he did it to build on the "growth" that LIV had brought to the sport, it's no secret that the chief motivation was financial. And who can blame him?

When one job is offering you no guarantees, a significantly lower earning potential and an extremely tough and grueling schedule and the other offers you a lighter workload with huge guaranteed money, who wouldn't want to take the latter option? As we've seen, it's tough to pass that up; Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, Patrick Reed, Cameron Smith, Sergio Garcia, Joaquin Neimann, Tyrell Hatton, and, of course, Rahm have all taken the easier, more lucrative path.

But the sacrifice to joining LIV is the lack of meaningful tournaments with history and bigger fields. Scottie Scheffler won The Players on Sunday, and while he may "only" have won $4.5 million, he made history in a tournament that matters to the players and millions of fans.

LIV Golf Hong Kong or Miami has no inherent meaning to it. And consequently, there's less fan interest. But if you're going to make that choice, as reasonable as it may be, you have to live with it. Rahm went to LIV likely assuming it would be a temporary decision before an inevitable reunion. 

Maybe he'll be right. But if not, he'll have a lot more lightly attended tournaments to look forward to.