Padraig Harrington says Jon Rahm 'well worth' £450 million LIV Golf move
Padraig Harrington believes LIV Golf did not 'overpay' for their latest mega-money signing Jon Rahm, after the Spaniard signed a deal worth a reported £450 million ($600m).
Rahm became arguably LIV's biggest coup yet in December, after the Masters champion opted to sign on the dotted line with the breakaway league. In doing so the Spaniard wrote himself into the history books, agreeing the third most lucrative sports contract of all time.
Rahm is not the first PGA Tour star to make the Saudi switch, with the 29-year-old following in the footsteps of the Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson as big-name major champions to move on.
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Like Rahm, they too signed a lucrative deal to make the jump, but none are bigger than the one handed to the current green jacket winner. For the Spaniard, the eye-watering amount was too good to turn down, and Harrington believes the capture of Rahm is worth every penny.
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The Irishman told Mirror Sport: "This [the signing of Rahm] is the biggest player [LIV Golf] have got, the biggest shift. They didn’t overpay for Jon Rahm because it was seismic the shift in people's opinion with him going. You could argue other players, but Rahm said he wasn’t going and he is a stalwart.
"He might not be world No. 1, but he looks like he is going to be a top two or three player for the next 10 years. Whatever they paid for him it was well worth it." Whilst Harrington praised LIV's savvy market move to lure in one of the world's best, he does believe the deal could have some implications later down the line.
Padraig Harrington had his say on Jon Rahm's Saudi switchRahm is not the first to pen a lucrative deal, with Mickelson and co also landing contracts worth in excess of £100 million following their move. None of course are bigger than the Spaniard's, but with the Saudis clearly happy to pay, this could leave both LIV's current crop and future signings also wanting more.
" The interesting thing for me is that it sets a very high anchor price for future players, and current players who are going to renegotiate," Harrington added. "They are going to renegotiate every three years for the players that are there, they haven't bought them for life."
The problems may well not stop there for LIV too. On the back of the shock framework agreement announcement last June, the PGA Tour are continuing to negotiate a deal with the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia (PIF) that will see them finally work in unison with their LIV rivals.
It is expected that part of the deal will see the Tour welcome back the players it had previously suspended for making the Saudi switch. Harrington therefore feels that if the PGA Tour are soon able to promise LIV's star men a spot back on circuit, this will only make the negotiation power of the players stronger.
" As long as the PGA Tour gives some way back to the LIV players it makes them very expensive for LIV," he commented. "If guys come to renegotiate and they only have LIV, they don’t have a great negotiating plate. Whereas if the PGA Tour says, 'yes you can come back and we are not going to overly penalise you', if they have this way back to the Tour it means their price to LIV is very expensive."
The continuing negotiations between the Tour and PIF has become the latest chapter in the ongoing saga that is men's professional golf, with those involved recently missing the December 31 deadline to sign off a deal. As frustrations grow within the game, Harrington has offered a solution to finally settle the agreement - an independent adjudicator away from the game of golf.
He added: "Somebody independent needs to set down the rules. It is going to be hard for the two sides to negotiate themselves because they are both bias. There must be somebody in sport who has nothing to do with golf who will go, 'right this is what you are going to do'."
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