Jon Rahm makes his return to the golf world this week for the first time since the birth of his fourth child.
Rahm is set to tee it up in the first DP World Tour Playoff event at the Abu Dhabi Aldar Championship at Yas Links. The last time he played — a missed cut at Wentworth in the BMW PGA Championship — Rahm admits his mind wasn't exactly at the golf course that week.
"We were actually quite concerned she was going to have an earlier delivery, and that was occupying a bit of my mind," Rahm said. "I had been lucky to be at home for all three of the births and I didn't want to miss what was possibly our last childbirth; amongst other things, that was one of them."
"Everybody is doing great. It was a wonderful birth and both Mom and baby are doing really
good. "So yeah, golf kind of took a bit of a back seat on the relevant things that I had to take care of. So between, obviously, supporting Kelley and the family and then the few weeks… pic.twitter.com/9ELyiYRzMw
— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) November 3, 2026
Begona Cahill Rahm was born last month, giving the Rahms a family of six.
This week is also Rahm's first time competing since he formally left LIV Golf after three seasons. He was the league's best player during his tenure and earned more than $100 million on the course, in addition to his contract.
During a pre-tournament news conference Tuesday, Rahm was asked about his reasoning for leaving LIV.
"I would say I can only reflect on those three years as a positive. It was a wonderful experience. Played a lot of good golf. Obviously, individually and as a team, we did great.
"And then, you said why I rejected the terms? As much as I liked the project and the idea on, let's say, LIV 1.0, I wasn't thrilled with the changes they were doing to 2.0 and I just wasn't willing to follow that path, right. It wasn't anything special, anything that stood out.
"I didn't like what they were going with 2.0."
Initial reports say LIV 2.0 plans for 10 events in 2027, with five in the United States and five around the world. Purses will also be noticeably smaller, in the $10 million range. When Rahm joined LIV, the league had a 14-event schedule and $30 million purses. LIV 2.0 is also expected to have far fewer golfers, with reports that BC Partners, which plans to fund the league next year, is aiming to sign roughly 40 players.
Rahm is one of more than a dozen players who have come out and decided against continuing with whatever the future of the league may hold. LIV remains in the bankruptcy process while trying to determine whether it can garner enough interest to continue playing in the future.
While Rahm says he wasn't frustrated that he didn't get what he initially signed on for before the 2024 season, he doubled down on the unknowns and direction of the league not heading where he was comfortable with.
"Too many unknowns at the time and there are still quite a few," Rahm said. "But seemed like it was going away from team golf and some of the things that made LIV, LIV. It just became more of a regular tour.
"So yeah, it wasn't really ever much of a consideration, to be honest."
Rahm plans to compete on the DP World Tour to try to earn his PGA Tour card back, though he did admit Tuesday he would be willing to accept a Brooks Koepka-like deal to return to the PGA Tour. He was offered the same deal and turned it down about a year ago.
The PGA Tour's CEO, Brian Rolapp, said in September he wasn't expecting any similar programs for players to be able to return from, but Rahm isn't an ordinary player.
Rahm will eventually be back on the PGA Tour, but the biggest question is how long will it take until that happens?
Cameron Jourdan is an assistant editor of Golfweek, covering college and amateur golf, the PGA Tour and plenty more. Follow Cameron on X/Twitter (@Cam_Jourdan) or Instagram (@GolfweekJourdan).
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Jon Rahm dishes on why he left LIV Golf, calls time a 'wonderful experience'
