\u201cI was never thinking that I was going to be any sort of weight that would tip the scales to make things come together,\u201d Rahm said Tuesday at Aronimink Golf Club<\/a> ahead of the 2026 PGA Championship. \u201cThat was never an argument in my mind. When asked if that was the case for people to come together, that would be great. I never made a decision based on that.\u201d<\/p>\n Ever since his LIV switch, Rahm has shown himself to be the ultimate dichotomy. It\u2019s an inner contrast that could very well come to define this era of pro golf. He pledged his \u201cfealty\u201d to the PGA Tour and said \u201c$400 million\u201d wouldn\u2019t \u201cchange\u201d his life. Then he left for LIV and admitted the money was a factor in deciding to \u201ccreate\u201d a new legacy. He\u2019s a two-time major winner who believes he is \u201cunfairly\u201d judged for his major record<\/a>. He lives for the Ryder Cup but risked sacrificing that to join LIV Golf<\/a>. He\u2019s a historian of the game whose appreciation for golf\u2019s traditions equaled his world-beating talent. He\u2019s also the man who left all that behind to play 54-hole [now 72-hole] shotgun starts. He\u2019s thoughtful and introspective in a world that is often shallow and full of privilege. That made him different. It\u2019s also why his LIV move was a shock to the system.<\/p>\n On Tuesday, as LIV Golf tries to find a way to extend its life past this season, Rahm was confronted with that initial choice \u2014 one that appeared to be antithetical to who he had shown himself to be.<\/p>\n \u201cWe all go back. We all think what could have been and what couldn\u2019t have been. It\u2019s inevitable,\u201d Rahm said. \u201cWhatever decision you\u2019ve made or choice is thought through and made for the reasons that you think are proper reasons, there\u2019s no sense in dwelling on it. In fact, you shouldn\u2019t really be unhappy about it. At least there\u2019s nothing that you regret.<\/p>\n \u201cIf the terms change afterward, like it\u2019s happened with LIV, that things changed a little bit, it\u2019s an afterthought, not a problem from the choice.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Knew before the players\u2019: Rory McIlroy had jump on bombshell LIV news<\/a><\/p>\n By:<\/p>\n That choice has seen Rahm arrive at the majors surrounded by uncertainty. He wasn\u2019t a factor in any of the 2024 majors. After a non-competitive, backdoor top-10 at the 2025 Masters, the noise around Rahm, his decision to join LIV and how it has affected his game grew louder. He heard it. He read it. Then came last year\u2019s PGA Championship at Quail Hollow, where Rahm mounted a Sunday charge to tie Scottie Scheffler on the back nine before falling apart on the Green Mile. Despite the collapse, Rahm described that Sunday as the \u201cmost fun\u201d he had had on a golf course<\/a> in a long time. <\/p>\n That was the product of being in true major championship contention again, the adrenaline that comes from being on the precipice of a lifelong goal and learning that things are not always as they seem \u2014 an almost daily lesson in pro golf\u2019s current universe.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was really fun to be out there in the landscape nowadays, in which as players in LIV we hear a lot of things from articles, from social media, from comments,\u201d Rahm said at Aronimink. \u201cWhile I understand why things are being said, it\u2019s something you have to deal with. That Sunday, playing against Scottie, that has the lead, and to feel the support and love from the crowd is what made it really enjoyable. To realize that sometimes the truth is very different from what [is] made up to be. \u2026 It was a realization of having such support from the crowd and playing good golf that made me realize in a way how I\u2019m truly perceived from the public, as opposed to what I read sometimes.\u201d <\/p>\n Perhaps it was also a reminder of what life was like \u2014 and could\u2019ve continued to be \u2014 had a different road been traversed. Had Rahm\u2019s choices not led him to a place he admits has been filled with lessons.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen tomorrow, and all we can do is learn from things that happen in the past good and bad,\u201d Rahm said. \u201cJust to speculate on what could have done, what could have been different doesn\u2019t really make much sense.\u201d <\/p>\n In the end, your life is the sum of your choices. Every decision has ramifications. The big ones lead to growth. Rahm said 2025 was a year of doing that, both on and off the course. They also teach you about yourself. Rahm is no different. That life-changing, career-defining choice left a mark; what it was remains to be seen.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s for me to know, and that\u2019s that,\u201d Rahm said, smiling, when asked what he had learned looking back on his initial LIV decision.<\/p>\n Perhaps one day \u2014\u00a0and maybe even Sunday, with him holding the Wanamaker Trophy \u2014\u00a0Jon Rahm will reveal his secret, and we can all start wondering about what\u2019s next, instead of what could\u2019ve been.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. \u2014 In April 2024, Jon Rahm sat at the dais at Augusta National, months removed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":667163,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":["post-667162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=667162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667162\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/667163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=667162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=667162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=667162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n ![\"Rory](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/rory2.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n
\n Alan Bastable <\/a><\/p>\n