Jon Rahm's first season of LIV Golf will end with WD

“Jon has had severe flu symptoms for the past few days,” the team said in a statement posted on social media. “For the sake of his team and the advice of his medical team, he will not be playing this week. He will continue to fully support his team.”

The team also announced that John Catlin, a 3-time DP World Tour America's winner who has been LIV's reserve player this season, will replace Rahm in Saturday's semi-final and Sunday's final.

Legion XIII earned a bye into Friday's quarterfinals by virtue of finishing second in the regular season. The action opened on Saturday in the semi-finals, where the four winners will face each other in the final, on Sunday, which returns to the stroke play, the team with the lowest score when all four players take the title.

The LIV Team Championship has a prize pool of $50 million and $14 million is allocated to the winning team.

Rahm has had an up and coming season after signing a reported $300 million deal to join the PGA Tour's renegade rival for its third season. The 29-year-old just edged out Joaquin Niemann for the LIV Individual title with a win at LIV Chicago, his second win in the first three games of the season and has never finished worse than T10 in any LIV start, except WD LIV Houston.

But the 2023 Masters winner did not fare well in the first three majors of the year, finishing T45 in his title defense at Augusta National before missing the cut at the PGA Championship and withdrawing earlier in the week from the US Open due to the same foot injury that forced it. will retire from LIV Houston.

He bounced back late in the year, winning his first LIV events, finishing T7 at the year's final major, the Open Championship and fighting for a medal at the Open Championship before a back nine crash saw him finish T5.

Rahm is also involved in the debate surrounding his DP World Tour membership. He needs to keep his membership to maintain eligibility to compete in Europe's 2025 Ryder Cup, but he was stopped by the Tour, as he was by the PGA Tour, when he joined LIV. He could be reinstated by paying his fine and suspension but is currently contesting the suspension – which allows him to play the Tour for the time being – and has indicated he will not pay the fines.

Jack Hirsh

Golf.com Editor

Jack Hirsh is an assistant editor at GOLF. A native of Pennsylvania, Jack is a 2020 graduate of Penn State University, earning degrees in broadcast journalism and political science. He was the captain of his high school golf team and recently returned to the program to serve as the head coach. Jack is also *still* trying to stay competitive with the local novices. Before joining GOLF, Jack spent two years working at a TV station in Bend, Oregon, primarily as a reporter/multimedia reporter, but also producing, anchoring and even presenting weather. He can be reached at [email protected].