Jon Rahm’s move to LIV Golf has sparked a particularly strong debate, leaving fans divided on whether the league has negatively impacted his performance.
Rahm’s switch to LIV Golf in December 2023 was one of the league’s most significant moves. At the time, he was fresh off a Masters win and had played a major role in Europe’s Ryder Cup triumph.
It appeared to be the type of signing that could push both sides towards an agreement and reunify golf.
But with 2026 approaching, no such deal has been reached. And for Rahm, his decision has not exactly paid off as planned.
Why Jon Rahm has not looked the same since moving to LIV Golf
Since making the switch, Rahm has not placed higher than seventh in a major. Although he secured the individual title in both LIV seasons, 2025 marked the first year of his professional career without a victory.
Critics of LIV would say the Spaniard’s decision has backfired, but there might be more to it than just the move itself.
Padraig Harrington, speaking on Skratch, suggested that changes Rahm made to his game before joining LIV may have played a bigger role in his dip in form.
“If you can be one dimensional you’re really good. Dustin Johnson’s a better example, just didn’t hit it left off the tee. It’s a superpower. I see players and they’ll hit that fade and they go, ‘I’d love to hit a draw’. And I scream at them now, I say, ‘look, you have a superpower that the ball doesn’t go left and you stick with it’. You’ll get sucked in one day to think that another shot is nice, but that’s not true,” he began by saying.
“You’ve got to know your superpower, that’s basically it. You don’t ruin your superpower.
“We didn’t quite get to see this because Jon Rahm went to LIV, but right at the start of that year that he went to LIV, he started trying to draw the ball. Remember him teeing it up six inches forward and high. I played with him at the PGA practice round, and he was a shadow of the player. And I watched a few of the LIV events and he had the lefts in him.
“His whole game was I can hit it as hard as I can down the left and it’s not going left. And for that six month period, he hit it left. And everyone was saying, ‘oh, it’s LIV’. No, now he’s getting it back to hammering it down the left and it not going left. But that was his superpower, but he was attracted to the extra 10, 15 yards of a draw and maybe for Augusta.”
Signs of improvement for Jon Rahm heading into the 2026 season
Rahm looks close to breaking his winless streak, and 2026 could be the year he adds another major title to his collection.
His numbers in 2025 were strong. Data Golf had him inside LIV’s top ten across all four strokes gained categories over the past season.
The Ryder Cup is its own challenge – just ask Scottie Scheffler – but the Spaniard stood out by delivering what many considered the two best shots at Bethpage Black.
Whether staying on the PGA Tour would have made a difference is something we will never know, some believe Rahm struggled with LIV’s shorter format. Therefore, moving to 72-hole events might play more to his strengths.
There is little doubt that he has too much talent for this drought to drag on much longer. And it is worth noting that Harrington does not see LIV as the reason Rahm hit this rough patch to begin with.
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