Jon Rahm suggests LIV consider 72-hole events

Masters champion Jon Rahm believes LIV Golf could help unify the sport by moving to a 72-hole format.

Rahm and other top players who joined the competing LIV circuit are in Augusta, Ga., this week for the Masters, the first tournament of the year that includes most of the world's best and past major champions otherwise split between the PGA Tour and its upstart rival.

Only 14 events that include 54 holes are on the LIV schedule.

"If there ever was a way where LIV could go to 72 holes I think it would help all of this argument a lot," Rahm told BBC. "The closer I think we can get LIV Golf to some other things the better. I think it would be for some kind of unification to feed into a world tour or something like that. I don't know if I'm alone in this, but I definitely wouldn't mind going back to 72 holes."

Rahm, 29, joined LIV late last year in a reported $500 million agreement. He finished fourth in the individual event at LIV Miami before traveling to Georgia for the first major of the PGA season.

He had been outspoken against the Saudi-funded golf league and said Sunday he was "not happy" when the PGA Tour announced a "framework agreement" with LIV Golf on June 6, 2023.

"At the U.S. Open trying to deal with something like that wasn't perfect timing. What we need to reflect on is the second that framework agreement was worked on, everything changed," Rahm said, noting he believes some of the "bigger names in golf" could be considering a similar move.

Rahm said the balance of golf could be disturbed if others follow him to LIV.

"And that's where the beginning of all this change happened. If it wasn't me (making the move) it would have been someone else at some point," he said, pointing back to the framework agreement. "If the PGA Tour is now open to working with the PIF or LIV or maybe coming together in some kind of way then that opened the door for me to do the same thing."