{"id":281137,"date":"2025-07-21T23:36:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-21T23:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/281137\/"},"modified":"2025-07-21T23:36:00","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T23:36:00","slug":"paul-mcginley-proven-spot-on-again-at-the-open-after-argument-with-liv-golf-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/281137\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul McGinley proven spot on again at The Open after argument with LIV Golf star"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Paul McGinley appears to have won his argument with Jon Rahm after ripping into the Spaniard&#8217;s decision to join LIV Golf, following a disappointing showing at The Open Championship<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/0_The-153rd-Open-Day-Four.jpg\" alt=\"Jon Rahm of Spain reacts on the 10th hole during day four of The 153rd Open Championship at Royal Portrush Golf Club on July 20, 2025 in Portrush, Northern Ireland.\" loading=\"eager\"  \/>LIV Golf&#8217;s Jon Rahm suffered more major disappointment at the Open Championship(Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Paul McGinley has been proven correct once again in his assessment that joining LIV <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.belfastlive.co.uk\/sport\/other-sport\/golf\/\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">Golf<\/a> has hampered Jon Rahm\u2019s chances of winning more majors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Rahm had to settle for a hugely underwhelming T34 finish at <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.belfastlive.co.uk\/all-about\/the-open-championship\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">the Open Championship<\/a> on Sunday, marking his worst major finish of the year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">It characterised the underwhelming form the Spaniard has displayed since his shock move to the Saudi Arabian-backed LIV circuit at the end of 2023, having previously pledged to stay with the PGA Tour. His controversial decision to jump ship came by way of an absurd offer of around \u00a3225million.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Despite enjoying plenty of success on the breakaway tour, that has not translated to success at the majors for the former Masters and US Open winner. That was <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.belfastlive.co.uk\/sport\/other-sport\/golf\/rahm-mcginley-pga-championship-liv-31645850\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">a concern former Ryder Cup captain McGinley raised<\/a> after Rahm\u2019s collapse at the US PGA Championship back in May, where he finished in a nine-way tie for eighth place.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">&#8220;Jon&#8217;s performances in majors since he&#8217;s gone to LIV have been disappointing,&#8221; the Dubliner told the Golf Channel. &#8220;Because three years ago before he went to LIV, I would say he&#8217;s going to be an absolute powerhouse &#8211; not far from where we have Scottie [Scheffler] now.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">&#8220;We haven&#8217;t seen that from Jon when he&#8217;s come back to the majors. Yes, he&#8217;s top 10 every week on LIV, but we&#8217;re really looking at the majors.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">McGinley voiced his belief that many LIV golfers are likely facing challenges they &#8220;hadn&#8217;t thought about&#8221; when they made the move. That unexpected element could be causing some players to fall off the radar at major golf tournaments.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">&#8220;There&#8217;s nothing easy in life,&#8221; he added. &#8220;Yes, they can say they&#8217;ve made a lot of money. But they&#8217;re hurting on the other side in terms of coming to these major championships not on the cutting edge, as they would have been had they stayed on the PGA Tour.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Rahm had responded to the criticism after his impressive Saturday display at Quail Hollow, which briefly put him in contention. Speaking prior to his Sunday meltdown, he said: \u201cMe going to LIV and playing worse in majors had nothing to do with where I was playing golf. My swing was simply not at the level it had to be for me to compete.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">\u201cIt\u2019s easier to post a score on non-major championship courses and venues, and I think when you get to the biggest stages like this one and these courses, those flaws are going to get exposed, and it did.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">\u201cThere have been weeks where I was able to play better, like The Open last year. The Masters obviously wasn\u2019t a good start, but it got better as the week went on, and I\u2019m still working and trying to get my swing to a better spot.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">However, he fared even worse at Royal Portrush in <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.belfastlive.co.uk\/sport\/other-sport\/golf\/golf-star-jon-rahm-snaps-32082147?service=responsive\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">a frustrating week at the Open<\/a>. The 30-year-old arrived in Northern Ireland confident after finishing second at the LIV Andalucia event in Valderrama.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/0_Dubai-Duty-Free-Irish-Open-Previews.jpg\" alt=\"Paul McGinley of Ireland faces the media ahead of the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open at Lahinch Golf Club on July 02, 2019 in Lahinch, Ireland.\" loading=\"lazy\"  \/>Paul McGinley was right to raise concerns about Rahm joining LIV(Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">He failed to find his rhythm, shooting a one-under-par 70 in the opening round and following it up with a disappointing 72 on Friday, while his scores of 69 and 70 on the weekend were not enough to fight his way into contention.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">His three-under-par finish landed him outside the top 30 as the PGA Tour\u2019s <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.belfastlive.co.uk\/sport\/other-sport\/golf\/open-final-round-live-updates-32097041\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">Scottie Scheffler claimed his fourth major<\/a> win in dominant fashion. Scheffler&#8217;s former rival Rahm only just managed to avoid his worst Open finish since his 2017 debut by holing from distance at the 15th and 18th.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Rahm admitted afterwards that he \u201cdid not play well enough and there are no excuses\u201d after a week of erratic play and missed opportunities. However, he remains \u201coptimistic\u201d that he can replicate Scheffler\u2019s recent success in the near future.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">\u201cVery few players have been able to do what he\u2019s done,\u201d Rahm said. \u201cHe\u2019s won three majors in three years. Won nine times last season, and he keeps going on. He\u2019s doing what everybody wants to do.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">\u201cWhat I keep reminding myself is that he was able to turn things around drastically. From not being able to close out early on some of the chances he had to getting it done often. If he\u2019s been able to do it, all of us are able to do it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">\u201cI\u2019ve definitely played really high, and I\u2019ve had my battles against him head to head, and it\u2019s always been a lot of fun. I\u2019m optimistic that I can get to that level as well. Obviously, it\u2019s not easy, but I\u2019m optimistic it can be done.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paul McGinley appears to have won his argument with Jon Rahm after ripping into the Spaniard&#8217;s decision to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281138,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4106],"tags":[2826,79,83701,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-281137","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-the-open-championship","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114893854114214018","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}