Jon Rahm’s LIV exit puts the PGA Tour’s biggest unanswered question back in focus

Jon Rahm’s exit from LIV Golf has put the PGA Tour’s biggest unanswered question back in focus: what will the path back look like for players who left the Tour?

Earlier this week, Rahm’s attorneys announced that the two-time major champion would not take part in LIV Golf 2.0 because he found the terms “unacceptable.” Adrian Meronk and David Puig later announced their departures as well. Earlier, a court officially notified Sergio Garcia that his contract had been terminated after he sought clarification about his contractual status.

“He’s clearly done whatever’s best for himself, just like all of us,” Xander Schauffele said after the third round of the Baycurrent Classic in Japan. Schauffele guessed that Rahm would play on the DP World Tour, while adding that he did not know whether the PGA Tour had offered Rahm a place through the same route it had previously made available.

In January, the PGA Tour offered Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, Cameron Smith and Rahm a route back through the Returning Members Program. Koepka was the only player to accept before the offer expired. PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp said in August and September that there were no current plans for the program, while stressing the importance of rules and accountability in a membership organization.

“No, currently there’s no current plans for the Returning Member Program like you saw earlier this year,” Rolapp said at the Tour Championship in August.

At that point, the PGA Tour did not yet need to provide a definitive answer. LIV had only just entered bankruptcy proceedings, and all of its players were still under contract. Rolapp said anyone interested in joining the PGA Tour would need to demonstrate that they were free of contractual commitments or any tail obligations under the legacy LIV model.

Now LIV’s bankruptcy case is moving through the courts, and the league’s player exodus has made the question of a return an immediate issue. Schauffele believes there will be no single view among PGA Tour players.

“I’ve got no idea,” he said when asked whether Rahm and others leaving LIV would return to the PGA Tour. “There are 225 guys with Tour cards, and if you sat down and interviewed all of them, you’re going to get probably three or four boxes of how guys feel. Some guys don’t care, some guys are really ticked off, some guys want them to have a huge fine, some guys would let them back tomorrow. Where I stand in those boxes, I don’t really know. I’m in the sort of, I try to mind my own business most times.”

Back in August, when LIV was still trying to retain Rahm and others, Rolapp made clear that returning players would not receive a red-carpet welcome. The deal given to Koepka would not be repeated. If a path back emerges at all, it will be considerably harsher.

“When it comes to LIV players or anyone else who wants to be on the Tour: One, the Tour is built on meritocracy. Every player, whether they’re already here or they’re trying to be here, they’re going to earn a place based on their performance and on their success. That’s a core principle of the sport, and it certainly is of the PGA Tour,” Rolapp said. “Two, the Tour is a membership organization. It has rules. Those rules exist for lots of reasons, for fair, competitive reasons. They exist so we can actually create the Tour as you know it. Rules matter. Three, rules only matter if they’re enforced. So accountability and discipline are essential to any organization, and certainly for the integrity of the Tour and for the game, especially in a game that prides itself on rules and integrity.

“Those are guiding principles for us. Rules matter. Again, I’ve been very public that I want to do what’s best for the PGA Tour, and that’s still my guiding principle. Whatever happens, those will be the guiding principles.”

Now that Rahm has exited and others have followed, Rolapp and the PGA Tour will have to answer the biggest question that remains — the one that could close the book on professional golf’s fractured era:

What is the path back to being whole?