Tiger Woods reveals he would be surprised if Jon Rahm defects to LIV Golf as Jordan Spieth insists it would be a huge blow for the PGA Tour with the Masters Champion being one of its ‘biggest assets’

• Jon Rahm is rumored to be the latest player who could defect to join LIV Golf
• Tiger Woods was added as the PGA Tour policy board’s sixth player director 
• DailyMail.com provides all the latest international sports news

Tiger Woods opened up on the rumors of Jon Rahm jumping ship to join LIV Golf, admitting that it would surprise him if the Spaniard made the move.

Reigning Masters champion Rahm appears to be the breakaway’s latest target as it continues aggressively poaching the world’s top golfers amid reports that the 29-year-old is close to agreeing a deal with Greg Norman’s rebel circuit.

The Spaniard is said to have been offered a multi-million-dollar offer to defect to LIV Golf with the breakaway’s players growing confident they can land him. 

However, while LIV’s rebels are confident, Woods claimed he would be surprised if the World No. 3 chose to leave the PGA Tour.  

‘Hypothetically, would it surprise me, yes, but there’s so many different things that have happened in the last, as you said, 48 hours, but also in the last few weeks,’ said Woods, following his second round at the Hero World Challenge Friday. ‘Things have changed and will continue to change. 

Tiger Woods (left) opened up on the rumors of Jon Rahm (right) jumping ship to join LIV Golf

‘Our deadline’s coming up here soon, so there’s a lot of moving parts, a lot of different things are happening very quickly, because today’s the first day in December. We don’t have a whole lot of time.’ 

Woods admitted that no type of signing would surprise him as he revealed that all parties are working around the clock to finalize the agreement.  

‘Nothing has really surprised me other than the fact that there’s so many different things that have happened so fast,’ he said. ‘That’s one of the things that all of us as player directors we’ve been working on, just that everything is now at a time crunch. It’s 24 hours a day just trying to figure it out.’ 

The PGA Tour, DP World Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which backs LIV Golf, are facing a looming deadline of December 31 to finalize an agreement following the bombshell June 6 framework agreement. 

After its players were left furious over being kept in the dark over the agreement by commissioner Jay Monahan, the PGA Tour has taken steps to improve transparency, including adding Woods as the sixth ‘player director’ on its policy board.

However, while Woods joined the board, his friend and business partner Rory McIlroy recently resigned from his position and was replaced by Jordan Spieth. 

‘I’m not sure specifically how it would impact those negotiations, but all in all, Jon Rahm is one of the biggest assets that we have on the PGA Tour,’ Spieth said. 

Jordan Spieth recently joined the PGA Tour policy board as a player director 

‘So it would really be not very good for us in general, because we want to play against the best players in the world, and that’s what Jon is.

‘I know there’s been some guys that have talked to him. I know he’s maybe weighing some decisions, maybe not. I really don’t know, so I don’t want to insult him and say he’s weighing decisions if he already knows he’s not or he is. That’s somewhat out of my control, in a way. Obviously, I could speak probably on behalf of 200-plus PGA Tour players in saying that we really hope that he’s continuing with us.’

Woods revealed earlier this week that that the board is discussing a potential pathway for LIV’s rebels to mend burned bridges after they either resigned their membership or were barred from the PGA Tour.

‘As far as a pathway, we’re still working on that,’ Woods admitted. ‘That’s part of the deal we’re working on, trying to find a path, whatever that looks like. There’s so many different scenarios. A lot of sleepless hours trying to figure that out and what does it look like.’ 

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