Jon Rahm gives up £75m claim to leave LIV Golf

Jon Rahm has agreed to forfeit a claim worth roughly £75 million as part of a separation deal that will see him exit LIV Golf. The league entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States in September after the Saudi Public Investment Fund pulled its multibillion‑dollar backing.

When LIV filed for bankruptcy, Rahm was identified as its largest unsecured creditor, with $7.4 million (about £5.5 million) owed for the balance of the 2026 season. ESPN reported that, in addition to the remainder of his $300 million (£222 million) contract signed when he left the PGA Tour in December 2023, the golfer is owed about $100 million (£75 million) in separate payments.

LIV Golf later secured a potential $300 million financing package from BC Partners Credit in an effort to launch a “LIV 2.0” plan. Rahm said the proposed terms were “unacceptable”. Instead of pursuing the money, he chose to waive the entire claim, describing his decision as a “complete economic walk‑away”.

Under the agreement, Rahm will retain the rights to “Legion XIII”, the LIV team he captained, but he will not be permitted to use that name to field a team in TGL, the indoor high‑tech league founded by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy.

Rahm was the most prominent player to defect from the PGA Tour when he joined LIV. While several former LIV members, including Brooks Koepka, have already returned to the PGA Tour after the organization rewrote its rules in December to allow such comebacks subject to sanctions, Rahm stayed with LIV until May. At that time he reached an arrangement with the DP World Tour – formerly the European Tour – that preserves his membership and keeps him eligible for next year’s Ryder Cup.

The PGA Tour automatically bans LIV participants for one year, but the DP World Tour offers a route back to the PGA Tour because the top ten players on the European circuit earn PGA Tour cards.

In August, Rahm, a former world number one, captured his third consecutive LIV season title. He has previously said he has no regrets about joining the league and has publicly supported the organizers’ efforts to make LIV sustainable.