{"id":60143,"date":"2026-09-02T21:16:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T21:16:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/60143\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T21:16:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T21:16:16","slug":"jon-rahm-keeping-his-focus-on-golf-more-than-livs-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/60143\/","title":{"rendered":"Jon Rahm keeping his focus on golf more than LIV’s future"},"content":{"rendered":"

MEXICO CITY (AP) \u2014 Jon Rahm says he had no trouble moving forward inside the ropes amid uncertainty surrounding the future of LIV Golf.<\/a> He led after the second round Friday even as more questions were raised based on a television interview with CEO Scott O\u2019Neil.<\/p>\n

Rahm, coming off a rough showing at the Masters, added a 4-under 67 on Friday to his opening 65 to take a one-shot lead at LIV Golf Mexico.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt takes a lot to win, and you also need a little bit of luck,\u201d Rahm said. \u201cI\u2019m clearly playing good enough, I just need to take advantage of the opportunities I\u2019ve been giving myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rahm led by one shot over Matthew Wolff (65), Tom McKibbin (65) and Harold Varner III (66) at Chapultepec Golf Club.<\/p>\n

Speculation was running rampant on Wednesday that LIV\u2019s main source of funding \u2014 Saudi Arabia\u2019s sovereign wealth fund \u2014 was on the verge of drying up. O\u2019Neil said in a memo to staff that the 2026 season would proceed without interruption and at \u201cfull throttle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Questions remained whether that would last beyond the end of the year, and O\u2019Neil added to the intrigue in an interview with U.K.-based TNT Sports.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reality is that you\u2019re funded through the season, and then you work like crazy as a business to create a business and a business plan to keep us going,\u201d O\u2019Neil said. \u201cBut that\u2019s not different from any other private equity-funded business in the history of mankind.\u201d<\/p>\n

The interview later was removed from TNT Sports\u2019 social media account and replaced with a different version.<\/a><\/p>\n

In a previous interview with LIV\u2019s broadcast team, O\u2019Neil was bullish about the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven the momentum of this business, we\u2019re really excited about where we are and the position where we are,\u201d O\u2019Neil said.<\/p>\n

He said he met with 50 people at the Masters and rolled out a plan that \u201cmight surprise people.\u201d LIV Golf has said some of its metrics such as ticket sales and team sponsorships have increased, and O\u2019Neil is projecting 10 of the 13 teams and four of the 14 events will be profitable.<\/p>\n

But there is a substantial cost involved with prize funds ($30 million for each tournament) and operations. The newsletter Money in Sport reported in February that LIV Golf already had spent $5.3 billion and was projected to surpass $6 billion by the end of the year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis notion of bringing teams to market, I had two calls this morning,\u201d O\u2019Neil said on the LIV broadcast. \u201cThis notion of, \u2018Do you have to raise money?\u2019 Probably this is business. But if we keep the trajectory going the way we are and the revenue growth going, this is going to be a really good business for a really long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP golf: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/golf<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MEXICO CITY (AP) \u2014 Jon Rahm says he had no trouble moving forward inside the ropes amid uncertainty…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60144,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[591,3449,22387,44,5229,528,22386,16211,3472,503,56,2141],"class_list":["post-60143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jon-rahm","tag-business","tag-central-america","tag-financial-services","tag-golf","tag-harold-varner-iii","tag-jon-rahm","tag-latin-america","tag-matthew-wolff","tag-mexico","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-sports","tag-tom-mckibbin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}