Rory McIlroy Throws Water On The Jon Rahm To LIV Golf Rumors

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Jon Rahm's name has been in the LIV Golf rumor mill for quite some time now, but after the Spaniard's recently announced decision to not take part in TGL, the new virtual golf league founded by Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods, those rumors quickly intensified.

Rahm's decision to back out of playing in the virtual league came just days after fellow professional Eddie Pepperell claimed that Rahm had responded to a recent LIV inquiry but asked for such a huge sum of money that not even the deepest of pockets from the Saudis wanted to back.

Nevertheless, McIlroy is squashing the rumors of Rahm potentially bolting from the PGA Tour to join LIV Golf.

McIlroy said he'd be"very, very surprised" if Rahm ended up joining LIV during his Boston Common Golf introductory press conference on Monday afternoon.

It goes without saying here that if Rahm were contemplating a jump to LIV, he wouldn't go out and tell the most influential player in the world not named Tiger Woods in McIlroy. On the flip side, McIlroy not entirely avoiding the question proves, at least some, that he's rather confident the two-time major winner isn't going anywhere.

What's being overlooked a bit when it comes to Rahm back out of TGL is his life back home.

Rahm resides in Arizona, which isn't exactly the quickest of flights to Palm Beach, Florida where all TGL festivities will be taking place. He also has two children under three at home. Rahm committing to being 'stay at home dad' while juggling a busy PGA Tour schedule was probably a somewhat easy decision to make, even with a presumed sizable paycheck waiting for him if he were involved with the virtual league.

Follow Mark Harris on X @ItIsMarkHarris and email him at mark.harris@outkick.com

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Mark covers all sports at OutKick while keeping a close eye on the world of professional golf. He graduated from the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga before earning his master's degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee. He somehow survived living in Knoxville despite ‘Rocky Top’ being his least favorite song ever written. Before joining OutKick, he wrote for various outlets including SB Nation, The Spun, and BroBible. Mark was also a writer for the Chicago Cubs Double-A affiliate in 2016 when the team won the World Series. He's still waiting for his championship ring to arrive. Follow him on Twitter @itismarkharris.