7 months ago
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Jon Rahm says a merger between the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) should not be rushed because it has the "opportunity to set golf up in a very positive way for decades to come".
The Spaniard, 29, who has won two majors and was part of Europe's victorious Ryder Cup team in 2023, joined the breakaway LIV tour in December.
Negotiations between the PGA Tour and the PIF, which funds LIV Golf, have been taking place for nearly 12 months in an attempt to end a split in the game.
Fifteen-time major champion Tiger Woods, who is personally involved in the process, accepts that while progress has been made there is a "long way to go" to reach an agreement.
However, Rahm says he is unperturbed at the length of negotiations given what is at stake for golf.
"Some decisions and negotiations can't be taken lightly, so it should take quite a bit of time to get it done properly," Rahm said.
"I wouldn't want to see something rushed just to get a resolution. They should take their time to make this work properly.
"I don't know if that takes one, two, three, five, six years. I don't know what that might be like. But I don't feel like I'm in any rush to make something happen today.
"You need the people that do this for a living that are far smarter than I am to get together to come together to be able to make it work."
Woods, who is a member of the PGA Tour Policy Board transaction subcommitteem which is tasked with working out a deal, added: "We're working on negotiations with PIF. It's ongoing. It's fluid. It changes day-to-day. Has there been progress? Yes. But it's an ongoing negotiation so a lot of work ahead for all of us with this process.
"We're making steps. It may not be giant steps, but we're making steps. We've made some progress, yes, for sure, but there's a long way to go still."
The businessman who set up the deal, Jimmy Dunne, resigned from the PGA Policy Board on Monday saying "no meaningful progress" had been made, with multiple reports saying he was unhappy at the slow pace of talks, which have stretched well beyond last December's original deadline.
Both Rahm and Woods were speaking as they prepare to compete in this week's US PGA Championship, which starts on Thursday at the Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky.
Woods, 48, a four-time winner of the Wanamaker Trophy, also triumphed at Valhalla in 2000, on his way to becoming the only player in the modern era to hold all four major titles.
