Chubby Chandler: Jon Rahm’s LIV Golf Move Was All About Money

Andrew ‘Chubby’ Chandler: Money was always the driving force behind Jon Rahm’s move to LIV Golf and his decision to leave the tour was the reason he played poorly at Wentworth, Eugenio Chacarra is fantastic to watch, Chacarra and Angel Hidalgo play like Seve Ballesteros

Renowned golf agent Andrew ‘Chubby’ Chandler believes that Jon Rahm and golfers that moved to the controversial LIV Golf were always chasing the money.

Speaking to BetBrothers, Chandler, who previously represented Rory McIlroy, has backed Rahm to have a strong year in 2027 now that the Spaniard has left LIV, citing how fellow former LIV players like Patrick Reed have played better since leaving the tour.

Chandler has also highlighted the potential of Spain’s emerging golfers including Eugenio Chacarra and Angel Hidalgo, seeing national hero Seve Ballesteros’s game in both players.

You can read the full interview below.

Jon Rahm feels like the big domino to fall from LIV. What are your thoughts on his exit from LIV, and what do you think it means for both Jon Rahm but also the tour itself?

AC: “Well, it was always only going to need one or two people to leave. Whether it was Bryson DeChambeau, whether it was Jon Rahm, it was probably only those two, to be fair. Brooks Koepka had already gone, Patrick Reed had already gone. So there were only those two. As soon as one of them said no, there was no critical mass for LIV to play with.

“As I said to you before, to run a tour like that, you need forty or fifty decent players. Because if you see what’s left, they can’t sell it on Richard Bland. I found it amazing that Richard Bland came out to say he was going to stay with LIV. Well, he had no other option. He could play the Legends Tour for €400,000 or he could play on the LIV Tour for millions. There was no option.

“So I think there’s nothing left for LIV. There’s nothing left to base their tour on. They can’t sign a load of new players because they haven’t got the cash to do it. The young players that signed with LIV haven’t really come through. We were going to talk about David Puig and he’s done alright, but he hasn’t done as well as I thought he was going to do and the other young guys haven’t featured. So where are they? Maybe when they were signing those people up, LIV thought they would come through quicker and become stars of their tour. But they haven’t.”

What would you be saying to guys like David Puig and the younger players that were in LIV? If you were their agent, what would you be advising them now?

AC: “I don’t need to tell them, they’re already doing it. They’re already trying to get on the European Tour. Because the DP World Tour is the easiest tour to get back on. But the lads that haven’t got an exemption, they’re going to go through the Tour School, I mean, that’s a long way back. That’s about sixteen rounds away from getting your card. But they realise that’s what they’ve got to do. I think when they signed with LIV, they probably never thought that would happen. But there was always that little possibility something like that could happen.

Is it a bit of a reality check for them?

AC: “Well, I think it’s a reality check with $10 million in the bank! There was always an upside and a downside when you signed with LIV and you had to weigh up how good the upside was against the downside.

“I think they all did that and most did that quite successfully. I think for people like Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter, signing with LIV was a positive, not a negative, because although they’ve got nowhere to play properly now, it doesn’t matter because their careers are just about over.

“They’ve banked whatever they’ve banked, and they’ve got a bit of golf to play, like the Legends Tour in Europe, and maybe they’ll end up getting on the Champions Tour. I think they’re still banned for a year even when they try and do that, so by the time they do that they’re getting too old to be that competitive. But the gamble that they took probably paid off.”

So why don’t the organisers at LIV say let’s just pack it in?

AC: “Who are the people organising LIV 2.0? Because I think the whole game with PIF and BC Partners is a tax dodge. I think they’re buying the debt, and then the debt goes against their tax. So I think there’s a big tax process, isn’t there? It’s what companies do all the time, we just don’t know about it. But I think they’re buying the debt for $300 million.

“The simple maths of it, if you think about the prize money for it, is 10 LIV events they’re talking about? So if you think about the prize money and say they’re doing $12 million instead of $20 million, that’s $120m of that $300m gone already before they’ve signed a player or done anything. So the numbers never added up on that $300m at all. And if you think about PIF losing $5 billion, what are you going to do with $300m?”

“It doesn’t work. The numbers don’t work. But if you buy $1 billion worth of debt or whatever it is, that’s the play I think there.

Do they need more investment then? More partners?

AC: “Yeah, but they’re not going to get to a billion, never mind five billion. It was naive to think that Rahm would take equity in their new LIV 2.0 when there wasn’t anything there to take equity in.”

We’ve talked before about the reasons for Rahm moving, a lot of it coming from money and the sense of helping his family financially in the long term. Obviously now that he’s left LIV, do you think he’s going to struggle to get himself thinking golf first, almost let his clubs do the talking?

AC: “I think he’ll be fine doing that and I think he’s even giving up £75 million, is the number they say. I mean, he’s developed a lot of generational wealth for his family, hasn’t he? I’m sure that the reason he hasn’t played very well over the last two or three months is because he’s had this hanging over him in his head. To try and decide whether to give up £75m is quite a big decision. There was no other decision, that was almost the only decision, but it’s a hell of a decision to make.

“When you saw him play at Wentworth, you don’t see him play as bad as that normally, do you?

“It’s not surprising he played like that with that sort of decision. If you go out playing knowing that you’re going to lose your job that afternoon, you ain’t going to play that well, are you? Your concentration is not going to be that good. And that’s what has happened there. I think you’ll find at the start of 2027, Rahm will have a clean slate, he’ll play in Europe, which is a bit easier for him, and you’ll probably find that he wins quite a lot of tournaments in the first half of next year.”

So you wouldn’t be concerned that Rahm will retire from golf?

AC: “No and I think he’ll get back to where he was. I think it’s a blip, and it’s an understandable blip and I think that’s probably the same for one or two of them. Cam Smith is probably the same.

When you think about it from the perspective of being a young golfer in Spain, has Rahm tarnished his image in terms of being a role model? Do you think what’s gone on with him at LIV gives youngsters a reason not to look up to him anymore?

AC: “I think Rahm will still be a hero. It’ll take more than that. They know what he’s done. He played very well in LIV for two or three years, didn’t he? So his golf was still up there and the fact he’s had these problems the last three or four months, I think he’s fine. He’ll still be a hero amongst young Spanish kids. Maybe not as much as Eugenio Chacarra.”

“Rahm has made a decision for him and his family. And if you ask him has it worked out, of course it has. I don’t know what he banked, but maybe $200m? Not bad for a bad decision, is it?

For the players that have stayed on, does it feel like a cash grab? 

AC: “It always was a cash grab from the start. All those people signed for the cash. No other reason. Whatever reason they gave about spreading the game, it was all to do with money, and some of them did unbelievably well. I would think Phil Mickelson sorted out a few debts with his money. You read about the stuff that’s been going on with him, he probably had quite a lot of debts, and he’s probably sorted them out in one go.

“Golf wasn’t ever a game where you could make $100m in a year. Even the best players weren’t making that. To be offered whatever they were offered, that was a once in a lifetime thing. A lot of them took it, and a lot of them benefited from it.”

For players like David Puig that have left LIV, seeing a player that’s maybe not achieved the heights yet in terms of fulfilling his potential, what does it mean for players like him now?

AC: “Well, the young lads have got a bit of cash in the bank and have got a career all ahead of them. People like Reed have got a bit of cash in the bank and to his credit, started again. Because he hasn’t looked for anything outside what he was due. To be fair to him, he’s probably played an awful lot of these European Tour events for no appearance money, maybe a hotel room here and there, that’s all. He’s been a real asset to the European Tour. I think he’s been quite popular, people quite like the way he’s gone about it.”

In comparison, what does it mean for Sergio Garcia now that he’s leaving LIV?

AC: “Well, it means he’s banked the cash and by turning his back on LIV, it wouldn’t have been difficult for him to sit down and work out that the equity in his team wasn’t going to be worth having and he’s moved on.

“I think the equity in the teams was probably worth having for the South African team. I think those teams had an identity and probably had a chance of building value. I’m not sure Sergio did so he hasn’t turned his back on anything in particular. He’s banked the cash from LIV and has got two or three years left to build up to a Champions Tour career.”

You don’t think Garcia will jump to the Senior Tour anytime soon?

AC: “Well, he’s got four years to go before he’s 50. He’s got time to play the DP World Tour events that he gets in, which will be plenty. And then, in three or four years’ time, he’ll be ready to have a Champions Tour career. His ban in America will be over, and he can carry on. It’s not going to be LIV money that he’s going to make, it’s going to be normal money.

What do you make of Eugenio Chacarra?

AC: “I love watching him. I absolutely love watching him and have done for six months now. He’s got a lovely game. He plays very naturally. Plays a bit Seve-like; he and Hidalgo are both Spanish cavalier-type golfers. And I can’t believe how good Chacarra putts. With that long putter, he putts amazingly. He just looks different, doesn’t he? When he plays, he looks different. But when you look at his swing and his action closely, it’s actually very good. It’s a bit rough around the edges, but it’s very good.

It’s an easy comparison to make, but do these young Spanish golfers remind you a bit of Seve Ballesteros and his style?

AC: “I think Angel Hidalgo more than Chacarra when it comes to Seve comparisons. Chacarra plays quite normally but Hidalgo has definitely got a lot of Seve in him and if Seve is as big a hero to us as he is, imagine what he’s like to a Spaniard. It’s no bad thing.

“One of the things I was looking at before we were going to talk is how much the Spaniards, the French, and some of the Scandinavian countries’ players are coming through quicker than British players. There are not many young British players coming through now. Dan Brown is probably one. There are not that many coming through, and the ones that are coming through, with respect to them, aren’t superstars. They don’t look like the guys coming from the continent. “Now, I have no idea why that is, unless the coaching in Europe has caught up with the coaching in Britain. I don’t know. But there’s no doubt that the Europeans, especially Spaniards and Frenchmen, are coming through very quickly.”

Do the likes of Hidalgo and Chacarra have the chance to eclipse someone like Jon Rahm and be that next superstar in Spanish golf?

AC: “It’s a different generation. Chacarra looks older than 24 to me but that’s a different generation to Rahm. Rahm is 31 so you’ve got a seven year difference. It’d be hard to see where Chacarra will be in six years’ time.

“We’re talking about a guy that may well win the DP World Money List. He’s there already. Massive career. Massive for young Spaniards coming through. They’re looking at Rahm, he’s out there, he’s won the Masters, he’s been to LIV, he’s come back. Chacarra is a kid that was playing the Challenge Tour probably three years ago. So they can relate to him much more than Jon Rahm.”

It’s great for Team Europe as well. Does Chacarra have a chance of being in Luke Donald’s team?

AC: “I think very much so, yeah. I’d be surprised if he didn’t get in. It’ll be interesting. Adrian Meronk has got a hell of a start on the Ryder Cup by his win so you’ve got three or four guys coming through that weren’t really considered.

“If you remember, we were talking probably two years ago that the Ryder Cup team that year was going to be the same as the time before. There was one change—they swapped Højgaard over, but eleven were the same.

“Whereas this time, you’ve got four or five young players that you’ve got to pinch, and then you’ve got four or five Europeans, all with a great chance. They’ll know that’s what they’re aiming for. The young player of today has his sights set much higher than ten years ago.”

It’s a massive call then for Luke, isn’t it? Does he go more with experience or risk going with these younger guys?

AC: “Yeah, I think one of the things that will be interesting is how many new players get in that top six. That will be the crux of it. The next six will be down to him picking who he trusts and Chacarra is such a good winner.

“Luke is obviously a winner himself so it’d be hard to neglect somebody that wins that often.”

In terms of Joaquin Niemann, you see his name up there on the leaderboard at majors and he goes a bit unnoticed, what do you make of him especially now that he’s left LIV?

AC: “We’ve forgotten about him. He plays really well. I think he’s a genuine threat to win a major next year. I think playing in the big field will help him and improve him. It would be great if he was Spanish, wouldn’t it? He would make Team Europe very strong. I think he’s a really good player.”

What about Bryson DeChambeau as well in terms of where his future lies?

AC: I have no idea what he’s going to do. I’m sure he’s got a plan. He’ll have a plan with his YouTube channel, he’ll have a plan to make money, and he’ll have a plan to play a bit of golf and that’s probably all he needs.

“I don’t know whether he’s in four majors or not next year, but he’ll have a little schedule of his own. Maybe only 10 to 12 tournaments, plus the YouTube stuff. That’s not enough to be a top player in my view, but he’ll have worked out how he can make $40million a year. At the end of the day, that’s what they’re all trying to do.”

Do you think the PGA Tour would welcome someone like DeChambeau back with open arms?

AC: “I don’t think so, no. I think the PGA Tour is strong enough now. They don’t need to allow anybody back that doesn’t fall into a category of their own. When you look at the PGA Tour, they’ve actually gone forwards, not backwards in the last two years and they’ve also got a load of new players that you’ve never heard of. There are some really good young players.

“Mac Meissner, he has an unbelievably good swing and hits it 10 miles. People like that. They’ve not competed on the big stage yet, but they’re about to.”

There’s not a lot of avenues for DeChambeau then?

AC: “No, I mean he’ll work out a way to get back. He’ll get one or two sponsor invites and then if he plays well enough, he’ll be fine but it’ll be down to him playing well enough. I think what’s interesting is that you’ve got this situation in America where you’ve got these new guys coming through, and they’ll have a problem with the people they pick. To my way of thinking, one or two of these young guys are in their top six players already so it’ll be an interesting Ryder Cup. Like I say, you can suddenly see a load of change.”

Do you think Rory McIlroy comes out of the LIV saga well?

AC: I suppose he does. He probably could see what was coming and I think a lot of people could see what was coming. But like I say, LIV was a cash grab. No problem with that. They’re all entitled to make their money, and there will be forty happy bank managers. There’s nothing wrong with that, is there? At the end of the day, they all play to make money.

“The secondary thing is winning majors. If you’re good enough to make enough money, then it’s about winning majors. So Rory’s targets for a year are totally different to say, Chacarra’s. Even though Chacarra wins more often than Rory at the moment. But Rory’s career at the moment is interesting because I would think he’s suffering from a lack of motivation a lot of the weeks.

“Turning up just pocketing the cheque for being there is one thing, but actually competing against guys that are hungry and playing good is different. He’s got to have that motivation to do it.

“Once he’d won the Grand Slam, I think a lot of that motivation goes. He can make these ideas up of what his goals are, but they’re not as strong as the goals he used to have.

“He doesn’t need the money, that’s for sure. He’s in a very strange place in his career. A very nice place with a very happy bank manager, but a strange place to work out what he should try and do golf-wise for his career.”

What Kevin Kisner said about him chasing the money in India, do you think he’s got a point?

AC: “Definitely. They’re all singing off the same hymn sheet. Not one of them will say, “I’m here because I’ve got paid $500,000 to be here.” Rory could nearly put a nought on that.

Is it then a bit hypocritical for McIlroy to be so dismissive and critical of what LIV has done and then he’s also chasing these massive fees?

AC: “No. It’s back down to being a business and making your money how you make it. One of the reasons he wouldn’t sign for LIV would be the fact that he can make enough money without being paid $300 million by LIV. That was the balance they all had: how much they got offered and how much they can make without it.

“Now, if Rory had signed with LIV, he wouldn’t have got the deals that he’s got now. DP World and those sorts of deals. He wouldn’t have got them if he was a LIV player. The LIV players haven’t got massive sponsorships because LIV wouldn’t let them have them.”

It’s worked out well for him there in terms of his marketability and image…

AC: “Yes but he’s the most popular player in the world. By a long way. I mean, when he tees up in America, nobody gets the “Come on, Rory” like he gets on the first tee. Sam Burns and people like that, they’re a fraction of the popularity that Rory has.

“Luckily for Rory, there’s no real American coming through that has the personality. Scheffler is a fantastic player, but he hasn’t got the personality Rory has got. You need the combination of the two. The wonderful thing about Rory is the fact that he’s got a wonderful persona and a wonderful game. Unless you’ve got the two, you don’t become the big personality that Rory is.”

When you were his agent, did you ever think that he could go on to become this popular not just by fans but all the brands wanting to be associated with him?

AC: “I guess I did. He was unbelievably popular when he was 19 and he hasn’t managed to diminish his brand at all, really. He hasn’t done anything to diminish that Rory McIlroy brand. So yeah, I probably could see that he was going to be as big potentially for brands as he is for himself on the golf course.”

What do you make of Patrick Reed saying his relationship with McIlroy has got better in recent years? 

AC: “Yeah, it had to be, it couldn’t have been worse since the Ryder Cup fallout.”

Do you think McIlroy is also now at this point in his career where he doesn’t really care what people think about him? 

AC: “I don’t think that’s really fair. I think he looks quite popular with his fellow players. When you see him playing with a guy that is nowhere near the same profile, he’s having a chat and going along. I think his popularity amongst the players is probably quite high.”

Do you think he gets surprised with the Kisner comments for example? 

AC: “It’s true [what Kisner said], so I don’t think he’d be surprised. I think he’d be chuckling and thinking, “Well, of course that’s why I’m here.” And he can’t say anything else either. He’s not going to turn around and say, “I’m here because I’m getting paid millions of dollars.” He’s going to say to the press, “I’m here to spread the game.”

“In a funny sort of way, DP World are taking over from where PIF was. DP World are beginning to spread the word around of golf. To me, if DP World follow the trend now, they should sponsor a lot of national Opens. You should have the DP World Spanish Open, you should have the DP World French Open, and that would do an awful lot. Now they’ve got Rory as a flag bearer. That also would work.

“I have no idea how much those two facilities he’s got will cost, but it will be multi-million dollars and probably in that deal will be that he has to play in two DP World tournaments or something.

“That’s probably why he’s in India this week; that’s probably part of the same deal. If that’s the case, then the DP World Tour will grow exponentially like DP World will. It’s an unbelievably good marketing activation that DP World is doing. Like I say, if you start sponsoring fifteen national opens around the world, you’re suddenly a big name. Well, they are a big name now, aren’t they? Who had ever heard of DP World before they did the European Tour? Nobody.”

What do you think is in store for Rory going into next year? He’ll have that motivation at the Masters because he always does. But will he also be thinking about the Ryder Cup? Could it be his last Ryder Cup we might see him in? 

AC: “I think he’s got another Ryder Cup to go after next year. I would think so and then it’ll be captaincy after that. The great thing about any European now following on to be captain, they’ve got an unbelievably good blueprint from Luke. They will follow what he’s done.”

What do you think this whole LIV fallout has done for the reputation of golf? Has it changed at all?

AC: “I don’t think so. I think the viewing figures are still very average. You compare golf viewing figures to, well, darts. Darts viewing figures are way bigger than golf, aren’t they?

“I think golf is a participation sport, isn’t it? How many people on a weekend are playing golf that could have watched the golf? I played golf yesterday. Do you think the guys that I was playing with were worried about any golf on TV? No, they were interested in playing.”

What are some of your predictions for the majors next year?

AC: “That’s a hard one, isn’t it? Well, I think Michael Brennan is going to be very good. I think Chacarra will be very good. I’d be surprised if Puig isn’t very good.

I like Sam Burns as a player a lot. I think he’s a very good player but you can’t see past Scottie Scheffler in America, can you? I’d be surprised if he doesn’t win one or two majors next year.

“That only leaves two majors. That was always the problem in Tiger’s era. When Tiger played, you knew he was going to win two majors. And that only left two majors for three hundred players. That’s why people like Ernie Els never won as many majors as they should have done. Because Tiger was always there.”

Are there any players that you feel have had a tough year that you would feel confident are going to respond next year?

AC: “Well, Rahm for sure. Probably Cam Smith. Brooks Koepka will probably get his game in order. The trouble with Koepka is when he went to LIV, he was injured, wasn’t he? And I have no idea if he’s still injured.”

What about someone like Matt Fitzpatrick, can he win a major next year? 

AC: “Matt will contend in two or three majors for sure next year. He’s got a lovely game that crosses all over the majors. You’re not going to be able to say there’s not a major he can’t win, because every major he’s got the game that could win it.”

What about Justin Rose and Aaron Rai?

AC: “Justin Rose needs a big year. I would say Aaron Rai is a younger version of Justin Rose. Aaron Rai has got a brilliant game for majors. Rai isn’t a one-hit wonder, I think he’ll be up there for a long time.”

In terms of the Ryder Cup, it’s Europe’s to lose isn’t it? How do the US stop them?

AC: “I think Europe will win it. Jim Furyk has been saying he’s got a few ideas up his sleeve, hasn’t he? But I don’t see what they can do that they haven’t done already. I think we’re just probably a better all-around team. And the strange thing now is that it’s changed completely. If it was a 15-man team, we would win by more. Our squad is better than their squad. Which is an amazing turnaround.”