One can argue that Jon Rahm’s departure from the PGA Tour to LIV Golf was hugely beneficial to Mackenzie Hughes. Last year, Hughes was at the 51st spot, which was just one spot away from qualifying for all the eight signature events of 2024.
Then, there were shockwaves in the world of professional golf when Rahm flipped on his long-standing LIV Golf by signing to the Saudi league back in December.
The PGA Tour was very quick to take action against him by suspending him. This pushed Hughes to the 50th spot. Currently, he is in Hawaii, competing in the first event of the year with a $20 million purse.
Hughes Reacts to all this
Hughes said he thought there was a chance there because, as the 51st guy, he just needed one guy to go. He spent Thanksgiving at home and heard rumors about Rahm starting to spread on Twitter.
Those rumors seemed to have been around for a while, but we never actually heard anything definitive about them.
Finally, Rahm made the announcement. He was aware of what would happen if he went, even before he made his announcement. Hughes expressed his gratitude to the tour for moving quickly and giving him insight into his circumstances.
The Canadian athlete would want to see a lot more transparency since he has openly expressed his worry for the game’s supporters.
He believes that fans are left thinking as well: he asked if guys still love to play golf or are all simply focused on making money. It’s quite obvious from all these guys heading to LIV that it’s all about the money. Not just expanding the game but also making money.
Hughes sent many posts on social media the day after Rahm formally signed with LIV, expressing his opinions on the “sad place” that men’s professional golf is now in. He understood the frustration felt by a lot of golfers and true fans.
Hughes is a member of the advisory committee
Although Hughes is an active member of the tour’s player advisory group and a two-time champion who is ranked 66th in the world going into 2024, he has limited knowledge of the discussions with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. As a kind of journeyman, he is concerned about the game’s supporters.
Like the fans, Hughes also wants to watch the best players in the game competing on the greatest stages, wherever they may be on tour.
However, he is unsure of how feasible that future vision is, with the most significant issue being the large salaries that a number of celebrities declined to remain affiliated with the PGA Tour.
He had a preference for a certain result but was not sure how to get there. That’s probably what the tour is battling as well.
He added that he hoped that the tours could coexist, that there was some unity between them, and that there wasn’t a major breach between them. It’s like there’s a pathway-like passageway that kind of flows back and forth instead of being a roadway.
He would be just fine if Brooks returned tomorrow because he wasn’t interested in playing on LIV and wasn’t offered a sizable sum of money to do so. However, some males took it quite seriously and were presumably ordered to “stay put.”
Like, everything will be alright over here. That’s where you ought to be. Then, when they are working with the PIF, it seems like those folks ought to have gone ahead and done it. He was not sure how to convince those guys that this was the proper course of action.
They would probably know in their hearts that returning here would be best for the game, but how can you explain to them, say, that they made $150 million, and now they’re simply going to come back and play on your tour as if nothing had happened.
He had no idea how to handle that. However, that is the result he is hoping for. At that point, the conversation shifts to who is playing the greatest golf and who is playing the best golf in the largest events.
Major moments in golf are discussed, not just the ones that make headlines or appear on Fox News when Jon Rahm announces his attendance at LIV Golf.
