Golf

Xander Schauffele feels Jon Rahm overestimated impact his LIV move might have

US PGA champion says Tiger Woods is the only golfer that ‘really moves the needle’

Xander Schauffele and Jon Rahm line up putts on the ninth green during the first round of the 2023 US Open at The Los Angeles Country Club. Photograph: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images
Xander Schauffele and Jon Rahm line up putts on the ninth green during the first round of the 2023 US Open at The Los Angeles Country Club. Photograph: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images
Wed Jun 05 2024 - 11:55

Xander Schauffele believes Jon Rahm overestimated his possible influence on the outcome of golf’s civil war when he joined LIV Golf.

Rahm stunned the sport when he joined the Saudi-funded breakaway in December, after he had previously pledged his loyalty to the PGA Tour and criticised LIV’s 54-hole format, with no cut and a shotgun start, as “not a golf tournament”.

Ahead of his Masters title defence in April, the Spaniard said he hoped his move would “expedite” an agreement between the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) following the Framework Agreement which was announced on June 6th last year.

Asked in his press conference ahead of the Memorial Tournament if more battles of the kind he had with LIV’s Bryson DeChambeau in the final round of the US PGA Championship would speed up the process, Schauffele suggested only one man – Tiger Woods – could have a significant impact.

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“I can think of one guy who would really move the needle, that’s still playing,” the American said. “[He] only plays like four times a year or five times a year, but that guy really moves the needle, in my opinion.

“But for guys that think that an individual will make this whole thing go faster, it’s probably thinking a bit high[ly] of yourself, to be completely honest.”

He continued: “I think it’s just going to run its course. I think there’s a lot of things people don’t realise that need to occur for things to go back together, for everyone to sort of shake hands and move along.

“There’s been so much damage that’s been done just in, you know, it feels like we’ve been in this mess for a couple years, it’s only been a year. It feels like it’s been forever.

“It’s going to run its course and everyone needs to get on the same page at some point, and that may take a while.

“I don’t know what the time frame would be, but four, five years or I guess it might even be longer than that, who even knows? But this will just be a small blip everyone will laugh about.

“Remember when golf was really fractured and everyone was talking crap about golf and where it is and all that stuff? You’ll laugh about it in five or six years.

“So I imagine golf will be back together, everyone will be playing golf again together.

“I don’t know what that will look like, but I imagine people will be competing against each other again and the fans will have what they want in that respect.”