Jon Rahm edging closer to $18m pay day despite LIV Golf ‘regret’

Jon Rahm is closing in on a major $18millionLIV Golf payday despite claims that he would jump at a return to the PGA Tourhaving regretted joining the breakaway organization.

The Spaniard shunned the PGA to join the Saudi-backed tour in a deal worth $500m as LIV’s headline signing during the off-season. Rahm could be about to win the players’ championship having climbed to the summit after almost sealing back-to-back tour victories.

Following LIV Golf Greenbrier, only two players are still in the running after Rahmfinished second and Chilean Joaquin Niemann T15. The bridge between current leader Rahm and third-placed Tyrrell Hatton is 51.68 points, and with 40 standing points awarded for a victory, it’s firmly a two-horse race. The gap between the top two is just 2.97 – meaning victory could be decided even in the minor finishing places.

Rahm and Niemann have already guaranteed themselves at least $8million with the second-place prize money already banked. Though both will have their eyes on the $18m prize for finishing on top of the standings.

Ahead of the tournament at The Greenbrier in West Virgina, golf reporter Jaime Diaz claimed that Rahm would give back his Saudi millions to return to the PGA Tour. “I am 100 per cent positive that if Jon could give the money back to the Saudis and come back to the tour, he couldn’t write the check fast enough,” Diaz claimed in Golf Digest.

“Now there are only four times a year when he’s playing that anybody is remotely interested. He thought his stature in the game was secure no matter where he was playing, and it was a bad miscalculation.”