Jon Rahm seemingly turned the entire golf world upside down in December when he joined LIV Golf in a lucrative nine-figure deal, with the huge news being by far and away the biggest story in golf.
The Masters champion defecting away from the PGA Tour to join the league that he had previously been critical of sent shockwaves through the game and may well have accelerated the PGA Tour's dealings with the Strategic Sports Group that ultimately led to a $3bn investment.
Yet just five months later the Spaniard isn't even being mentioned among the three favorites this week at Valhalla for the PGA Championship, where he arrives somewhat under the radar as fifth-favorite behind Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Brooks Koepka and Xander Schauffele.
Rahm is winless in 2024 after his move to LIV Golf but stresses that his game isn't in too bad shape despite a lacklustre title defense at Augusta last month. He was T45th at The Masters but his worst finish in seven LIV events is 14th with four top-fives.
He is 2nd in the individual standings in the LIV Golf League, with his Legion XIII side also 2nd after two tournament wins and four fifth-place finishes.
"I don't think my game is in any sort of issues," he said at Valhalla.
"I didn't play good at Augusta, but so far I haven't missed a top 10. I know it's smaller fields, but I've been playing good golf. It's just the one Major that I played clearly wasn't great. Have I played my best golf? No. But I do feel the last few weeks, especially coming off Singapore, I felt, you know, made a couple tweaks that you wouldn't be able to tell.
"It's just very minor things. Like it could be ball position, small things that have made my game be consistently much better even when I'm home and in general just feel more like the norm, right, a little normal.
"So I never, never felt like I was far off, and when I say I'm not playing my best, just hadn't had my A game for a week yet, but I still I've been close to my A game and B+ multiple times, so yeah, I'm comfortable how I played this year."
The Spaniard was then asked about the Ryder Cup and the future of the PGA Tour and PIF dealings, and he was very clear that he is not on the "other side" now he's left for LIV.
The two-time Major champion was adamant that he has made a promise to Luke Donald that he'll be back on Team Europe next year and he appears to be as committed to the PGA Tour and DP World Tour as ever, despite being suspended by the US-based circuit and facing sanctions by the DPWT for playing LIV.
"I said I would do whatever I can to get into that Ryder Cup team, and I made that commitment to Luke [Donald], and I want to be able to be a part of it. So again the schedule's going to be the hardest thing in that regard," he said, with his schedule away from LIV currently up in the air due to wife Kelley expecting the couple's third child, while saying he plans to play the Spanish Open and could have to play four European events later in the fall.
"See you guys keep saying "the other side" but I'm still a PGA Tour member, whether suspended or not," he replied when asked how he sees the state of the game from the other side.
"I still want to support the PGA Tour. And I think that's an important distinction to make. I don't feel like I'm on the other side. I'm just not playing there. That's at least personally. I wouldn't know what to say because it would just be not hearsay, but hypothetical, because I don't know what's going on, right.
"I haven't really spoken enough to know about what's going on on the board, and obviously people are not going to be willing to be sharing that information with me since I'm no longer a part of those discussions, so I couldn't really tell you. I'm going to say what I've said all along, I hope we reach a resolution and a resolution that's beneficial for everyone. But I couldn't really tell you much about what's happening.
"I've said however I can, I would like to support it [the PGA Tour], right. So even though I'm playing full-time on LIV Golf, like I've said many times, had I been allowed, I would have played some events earlier in the year, and if allowed in the future and not conflicting with my schedule, I would play in the future.
"That's why I think it's important. The PGA Tour has given me so much and has given me this platform and the opportunity that I'm not really going to turn to the side and go against it, because I'm not going against it."
He also made it clear that he supports Rory McIlroy's view for a global circuit.
"Well, I think at this point, PIF, PGA Tour, DP World Tour, maybe even some of the other governing bodies need to get together and see what that looks like. Because everybody is going to have a different idea, and I think everybody's going to have to give something back or have some compromises to make that work, right.
"We've heard Rory mention that world tour are the best players in the world playing together. Yeah, I would agree I would love to be able to see that. Like I said many times, we have the opportunity to put golf on a different level of the map and make it more global than ever, and I fully support that idea."
