Two-time major champion Jon Rahm is quitting LIV Golf after his lawyer told a New Jersey bankruptcy court the proposed relaunch terms are unacceptable to him.
John Beck, Rahm’s attorney, spoke Wednesday before Judge Michael B. Kaplan in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey. Beck told the court that Rahm had reviewed the proposed terms of LIV 2.0 on his own and rejected them.
The move pulls a marquee name off a circuit already trying to climb out of federal bankruptcy without money from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. The fund pulled its financial backing, and LIV is now left reorganizing without that support.
Rahm and the league are working on a separation agreement. Beck said both sides want that deal finished by Oct. 15.
Beck did not hedge. Daily Caller reported his statement from the hearing:
"Mr. Rahm has independently reviewed the proposed terms of LIV 2.0 and has determined that those terms are unacceptable to him, and he will not be participating going forward in LIV 2.0,"
That language closed the door on Rahm’s future inside the relaunched league. The hearing record, as described publicly, did not spell out which clauses he refused. It did make his bottom line plain: he is not playing LIV 2.0.
Sky Sports News posted the break the same day on X. The account said Rahm is quitting because of the “unacceptable” terms offered for the proposed relaunch of the breakaway series.
Beck told the court the sides are already working through separation papers. The aim is to finish by Oct. 15.
That date now sits on the calendar as the practical off-ramp. Until the agreement is done, Rahm remains tied to a league fighting for survival in bankruptcy court rather than on the leaderboard.
His playing plans for 2027 are not known. Nothing in the Wednesday hearing fixed his next tour, only that LIV’s next version is off the table for him.
LIV Golf built its brand as a high-dollar rival to the PGA Tour. Saudi sovereign wealth made that model possible. With the Public Investment Fund’s backing gone, the circuit is arguing its future in front of a federal bankruptcy judge in New Jersey instead of writing checks from an open purse.
Rahm’s exit fits that new reality. A two-time major champion independently reviewed the post-bailout terms, found them wanting, and said no in open court through counsel.
Judge Kaplan heard the representation as part of the broader bankruptcy matter. The case details beyond Beck’s statement and the separation timeline were not laid out in full in the public account of the hearing.
What remains is simple and damaging for a league trying to relaunch. Its former financial engine is gone. One of its biggest on-course names is leaving. The paperwork to split is supposed to be done in days, not seasons.
Golf fans watching the bankruptcy docket did not need a press release to read the signal. When the subsidy stops and the contract no longer pays like the old one, players of Rahm’s caliber head for the exit, and the court file is where that decision gets entered.
