- Golf. Rory McIlroy plays with his future: Going to the LIV? Who knows?
- Golf. Jon Rahm shows his disappointment with Tiger Woods: He's too busy to talk to me
LIV Golf has allowed Jon Rahm to become familiar with Hong Kong, a city he had not visited before.
It is the fourth stop of the LIV Golf Tour in which the player from Barrika has not yet made his debut as an individual, although he has made his debut as a team player.
And he proudly attended the bunker-busting master class that Phil Mickelson, his old friend, gave to Caleb Surratt, the beardless 19-year-old who is part of Jon's Legion XIII.
"Ninety-five percent of the things you hear from Phil are gold. He's a guy always willing to help whoever comes up to him," he said.
Rahm appeared before the press after learning of the letter that Greg Norman, the head of the tour, sent to the players warning that the League has stopped fighting to be recognized by the world rankings.
The decision is transcendental since it is the most comprehensive formula to reach the Majors, the tournaments that all golfers in the world want to play, and it has caused immediate consequences. From the 18 LIV players who played the Masters at Augusta in 2023, the number has been reduced to 13 this year, including the former winners.
And this number has been reached thanks to Augusta National being magnanimous with Joaquin Niemann, winner of two of the three LIV tournaments, champion of the Australian Open in November and who happens to be the most in-form golfer in the world right now.
"I'm very happy to see Joaco get invites. ... While we don't have a clear path to majors through LIV yet, I think they should be taking everybody under consideration," Rahm said. "If anybody in this world doesn't think Joaco deserves to be in the top 10 or doesn't know that he's a top player in the world, I don't know what game you're watching.
"We can tell. I think anybody who watches golf can tell who the best players in the world are. Obviously I don't think the ranking is reflective of that right now to its entirety."
Rahm doesn't change his stance
The player from Barrika, despite being the world number 1 for 52 weeks, has always been critical of the world ranking that rewards PGA Tour tournaments excessively to the detriment of the rest of the events.
"I'm going to be honest, I didn't know they were still trying to get world ranking points. But the one thing I can say is I'm going to back to what I said two years ago in the DP World Tour Championship," Rahm told reporters Wednesday.
"I didn't think it was a good system back then. And if anything, the more time that goes on, the more it proves to be wrong."
Nevertheless, the gesture of the Masters, and also the PGA Championship, the next major on the calendar, by inviting Niemann, is a breakthrough for Jon.
"I think it's the start of something positive: that they're now giving a player a chance. Before you know it, there will be a solution to all of this. It's just opening the door a little bit to a broader conversation," the Spaniard concluded.