Jon Rahm is gone and so is professional golf as we've known it...

In professional golf money talks and tradition is going to take a walk. Here's how the Rahm move will normalize and ultimately kill the PGA Tour.

Cam Smith was the No. 2 golfer in the world when he left the PGA Tour for Saudi-backed LIV Golf. Now, Jon Rahm, the No. 3 golfer in the world and defending Masters champion is joining him (and many others) in the golf league that cannot be called ‘upstart’ anymore.

For LIV Golf, the Rahm acquisition is so much bigger than his world ranking, past wins, or status as a current major title holder. It represents a page turning in professional golf. A new chapter if you will. For 48 weeks out of the year, professional golf is exclusively and unmistakably about players making as much money as humanly possible.

For all the talk about growing the game, saving professional golf from so-called bad actors, and everything else once-honorable — the goals are clear for the game’s best: Make as much money as quickly as possible. And I’m not just talking about the guys jumping over to LIV.

“The past two years, there’s been a lot of evolving in the game of golf, right?” Rahm said in his announcement interview with Fox News. “Things have changed a lot and so have I. Seeing the growth of LIV Golf, seeing the evolution of LIV Golf, and the innovation is something that’s really captured my attention. And that’s why we’re here today.”

Rahm also wasn’t coy about the money that drew him to LIV, which was reported to be between $400 and $600 million. I know, this is the same guy who said he could live comfortably off the money he’d earned on the PGA Tour thus far in his career, which exceeds $78 million. Simply put, hundreds-of-millions of dollars changes things.

Jason Day eluded to it yesterday as it became clear Rahm was leaving the PGA Tour: “Everyone has a price.”

But more than that, I believe Rahm’s decision was practical as much about money or interest in anything LIV could do. In response to LIV, the PGA Tour inflated purses to unsustainable levels and made it clear that without massive private investment—the Tour is defeated because as Day said, everyone has a price. And ultimately, the Tour cannot cash the check it’s written for the next decade as it’s players openly expect a bigger-and-bigger piece of the revenue pie.

So, if you’re one of these players being offered a massive contract—does sticking around a Tour that could be bankrupt in a few years or see its biggest sponsors moving to LIV make any sense?

Callaway said they will continue working with Rahm through LIV. So, the idea that corporate sponsors are worried about sports-washing is silly. Corporate sponsors care about getting the most value for their dollar—and that means working with the best players on the planet—wherever they might be.

The Rahm move doesn’t only make logical sense when asking ourselves honestly about the operational future of the PGA Tour, but in that corporate reality for golf, too. Television ratings have suffered for both tours, but with the PGA Tour sticking to its ‘tradition is king’ argument—innovation cannot be expected. Television audiences are dwindling. And the traditional format is proving to be hopeless. So, for companies like Callaway, TaylorMade, and every other in the golf segment—normalizing LIV (which is what the Rahm acquisition does)—is crucial.

It puts distance between corporate sponsors and Saudi-tainted money. It puts players—who will defend LIV in the name of growing the game—between the two sides. Sponsors will get the benefit of being integrated into the product without having to sign on the dotted line with the PIF or LIV.

There’s also the only vaguely reported fact that any deal between the two sides is likely to be shot down by U.S. regulators. Whether it be the Department of Justice or Federal Trade Commission—someone will have something to say about the PGA Tour partnering with the Public Investment Fund.

So, yes, Jon Rahm is gone—and so is the professional game we’ve known for the last 40 years.