Just hours after 2023 Masters champion Jon Rahm jumped on Fox News to announce his shocking departure to the Saudi-backed LIV Golf Invitational Series, Spanish website Ten Golf reported that two more of the PGA Tour's brightest stars could soon join him. Tony Finau and Tyrrell Hatton are the latest players to be linked to LIV Golf, with Ten Golf speculating that they could be members of Rahm's new team on CEO Greg Norman's circuit.
Finau, currently 21st in the Official World Golf Ranking, is a six-time winner on the PGA Tour and a notable fan favorite. The 34-year-old Utah native has also represented the United States twice at the Ryder Cup and was a member of the 2019 and 2022 Presidents Cup teams.
Hatton is ranked 12th in the OWGR and has six career victories on the European Tour, including the 2016 and 2017 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, the 2017 Italian Open, and the 2019 Turkish Airlines Open. The 32-year-old Englishman has only one win on the PGA Tour, coming at the 2020 Arnold Palmer Invitational just before the COVID-19 shutdown, but he's known for being one of the most consistent players on the planet. Hatton has represented the Europeans in each of the last three Ryder Cups.
With the PIF landing another massive splash in Rahm, the ball is now in the PGA Tour's court to resume negotiating the framework deal announced in June. While negotiations have been dragged on for several months, commissioner Jay Monahan and the Tour aren't left with much choice but to strike down a deal with the Saudis. If they continue to stall, they risk losing more and more players with each passing day. AKA, they have absolutely ZERO leverage, and now everyone knows it.
The deadline for an agreement between PIF and the PGA Tour is Sunday, Dec. 31. If I were Monahan and the PGA Tour, I would be getting to work ASAP.
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