{"id":12113,"date":"2026-01-14T02:02:30","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T02:02:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=12113"},"modified":"2026-01-14T02:02:30","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T02:02:30","slug":"liv-golf-jon-rahm-bryson-dechambeau-and-cam-smith-snub-pga-tour-return-to-remain-with-saudi-arabia-backed-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=12113","title":{"rendered":"LIV Golf: Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau and Cam Smith snub PGA Tour return to remain with Saudi Arabia-backed series"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><b class=\"ssrcss-1xjjfut-BoldText e5tfeyi3\">Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau and Cam Smith have all indicated they will remain with LIV Golf rather than rejoining the PGA Tour.<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Five-time major winner Brooks Koepka was recently accepted back on the American circuit after he quit the Saudi Arabian-backed series to prioritise &#8220;the needs of his family&#8221;. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/golf\/articles\/ce9yvp50ve8o\" class=\"ssrcss-k8mrr8-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\">PGA subsequently opened the door<\/a> for fellow major winners Rahm, DeChambeau and Smith to follow Koepka under a new returning member programme open until 2 February.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">But the trio have since quashed the prospect of a return at a news conference for LIV Golf captains.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Rahm, 31, said he &#8220;wished Brooks the best&#8221; but was &#8220;not planning to go anywhere&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"> &#8220;As far as I&#8217;m concerned, I&#8217;m focused on LIV for this year and hoping my team can repeat as champs,&#8221; said the Spaniard.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">American DeChambeau said he was &#8220;contracted through 2026&#8221; and &#8220;was so excited about this year&#8221; while fellow 32-year-old Smith of Australia added that he had &#8220;made a decision&#8221; and will &#8220;be on LIV for years to come&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Only players who have been away from the PGA Tour for at least two years and have won The Players Championship or a major between 2022-25 were eligible to return under the terms of the PGA initiative.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">PGA Tour chief executive Brian Rolapp outlined that programme would be only open for the 2026 campaign and was in &#8220;response to a unique set of circumstances&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;This is a one-time, defined window and does not set a precedent for future situations,&#8221; Rolapp said in an open letter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Once the door closes, there is no promise that this path will be available again.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/golf\/articles\/cpdy11zylx4o?at_medium=RSS&#038;at_campaign=rss\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau an&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12114,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[251],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12113"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}