Xander Schauffele knows it’s a big deal in the grand scheme of professional golf. But he also isn’t one to spend too much time focusing on things outside his control. So when Jon Rahm’s attorneys announced earlier this week that the two-time major winner wouldn’t take part in LIV Golf 2.0 because he found the terms “unacceptable,” Schauffele didn’t think much of it. Golf’s civil conflict has ended, and those who left the PGA Tour for large sums of guaranteed money will now be looking for new homes.
Self-preservation has been the underlying theme of professional golf over the last four years. Everyone just went about it in their own way.
“He’s clearly done whatever’s best for himself, just like all of us,” Schauffele said of Rahm’s LIV departure after the third round of the Baycurrent Classic in Japan. “I’m sure he’ll just play DP [World Tour], is my guess, DP World Tour. I don’t know if the [PGA Tour] has offered him a spot like they had that window before. Yeah, he’s just doing whatever he thinks is best for himself; it’s kind of that.”
But Rahm’s LIV exit also brings the PGA Tour’s big unanswered question back into the light.
“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. Rolapp reiterated that message in September, emphasizing the importance of rules and accountability in a member organization.
But Rolapp and the PGA Tour also didn’t need to have clear answers about a pathway back for defectors at that time. LIV was just entering bankruptcy proceedings, and all of the league’s players were still under contract, so there was no immediate need for Rolapp to have a concrete plan for how or whether to bring them back.
“Anyone who’s interested in coming to the PGA Tour needs to demonstrate that they are relieved of their contractual commitments or any tail obligations they might have in that legacy model,” Rolapp said in August.
With a LIV exodus underway, Schauffele knows the questions of if, how and when the LIVers can return are on the horizon. But those answers will be hard to find because, as Schauffele notes, every player affected by LIV’s emergence and golf’s civil conflict has a different opinion on, well, everything, including what the fate of Rahm and others should be — and those opinions will vary based on each player who left for the once-Saudi-backed league.
“I’ve got no idea,” Schauffele said when asked what if Rahm and others leaving LIV will 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 teetering but still had hope of retaining Rahm and others, Rolapp made it clear that there would be no red carpet for any LIV returnees. The deal the PGA Tour gave Koepka would not rematerialize. Whatever path back comes next — should there be one — would be much 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, with Rahm exiting and others following, Rolapp and the PGA Tour will have to answer the biggest question that remains. The one that can close the book on a fractured era in professional golf.
