Jon Rahm

The Spaniards Are Going Home

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Three Spaniards, one bankruptcy court and a sudden fondness for the DP World Tour.

When LIV Golf set out to buy the professional game, Spain lent it some of its most recognisable names: Sergio Garcia and a then-amateur David Puig at the launch in 2022, and Jon Rahm, the reigning Masters champion, at the end of 2023.

Within a single week this October, all three headed for the exit. The cheques, for the most part, have already cleared.

LIV Golf exodus

How LIV Ran Out of Road

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund decided to stop funding LIV at the end of 2026, having reportedly spent more than $5 billion on the project. On 8 September the league filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in New Jersey, owing between $500 million and $1 billion to at least 1,000 creditors — Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau among the largest. (Al Jazeera, Skratch)

The rescue plan, LIV 2.0, promises a shorter schedule, player equity and a new lead investor. It also needs star players to make the sums work. A league built on the idea that money solves everything has discovered the drawback of not having any.

One Week in October

On 7 October Rahm’s lawyer told the bankruptcy court that the two-time major champion had reviewed the LIV 2.0 terms and found them unacceptable. He leaves with three consecutive LIV individual titles and, according to court filings, more than $100 million still owed on his contract. The same court released Garcia that week.

Jon Rahm tees off at a LIV event in 2026David Puig tees off at LIV Houston

The following day Puig, 24, used the first round of the Open de España at Club de Campo Villa de Madrid to confirm he was out too: “I don’t see myself playing in the LIV 2.0.” He holds a full DP World Tour card and intends to use it. (Golf.com, Golf Monthly)

Who Is Left

Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed had already gone. Joaquin Niemann, LIV’s most prolific winner with nine individual titles, is reported to be next, while Cameron Smith and Tyrrell Hatton remain undecided.

The DP World Tour has helped them think it over: chief executive Guy Kinnings says anyone signing for LIV 2.0 will not hold membership next year. Richard Bland, 53, says he is staying. Somebody has to turn the lights off. (GolfMagic, Golf Digest)

Why It Matters If You Play Rather Than Watch

Rahm’s first stop is the Abu Dhabi Championship, 4–8 November, and he is expected to base himself in Europe in 2027. Puig plans a full European season. That puts Spain’s biggest names back on Spanish tees — this year the country staged DP World Tour events at Real Club de Golf El Prat near Barcelona in May and in Madrid in October. (Golf Digest)

Cork oaks line a fairway at Real Club Valderrama in SotograndeWhether LIV ever returns to Valderrama, which hosted its Andalucía event in June, is anybody’s guess. Valderrama is not going anywhere, and nor are the rest of the Costa del Sol’s courses, the October sunshine or the pescaíto frito at lunch. The Spaniards have decided there is no place like home. They may have a point.

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Browse our Spain golf holidays and play the courses the Spaniards are coming home to.

Camiral: The Course Booked for Golf’s Next Ryder Cup

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Catalonia’s two championship layouts, six years before the crowds arrive.

Camiral, in the Girona countryside an hour north of Barcelona, has just been named host of the 2031 Ryder Cup. It is only the second Spanish venue in the competition’s history, following Valderrama in 1997, and the decision changes what a round here means. The two championship courses have always been serious golf. Now they come with a deadline attached.

Golfer checking in a golf travel bag at airport departures before a golf holiday

A Second Ryder Cup for Spain

Ryder Cup Europe’s selection of Camiral makes Spain the first country on the continent to host the event twice, a decision framed by chief executive Guy Kinnings as recognition of Spanish golf’s long-standing contribution to the competition. Sergio García remains the Ryder Cup’s all-time points leader, and Jon Rahm has been one of Europe’s defining players across the last three editions. Camiral now carries that history forward. (ESPN)

Stadium and Tour — Two Different Tests

Camiral operates two courses, and they reward different games. The Camiral Stadium is the tougher of the pair, having hosted a DP World Tour event three times, most recently in 2022, and the European Tour’s Qualifying School Final Stage on seven occasions since 2008.

Camiral Stadium course fairway with the Girona countryside behind, Costa Brava
Next door, the Camiral Tour was built to the same standard but wider, with larger greens that give a broader range of handicaps a fair shot at scoring well. Both share ground that was originally earmarked for a Grand Prix circuit before Formula 1 relocated to Montmeló — golf got the better draw. Between now and 2031, the resort will also host the Estrella Damm Catalunya Championship each year from 2028 to 2030, so the countdown is already on the calendar. (ESPN)

Camiral Tour course, the kinder option

Girona and the Costa Brava Table

The resort itself, now trading as Camiral after years as PGA Catalunya, sits a five-minute transfer from Girona airport. Girona itself is worth the detour on a rest day — a walled old town of stone stairways and a cathedral that climbs straight up from the Onyar river, with a market culture built on Catalan cooking rather than tourist menus. Barcelona is an hour away if the trip stretches to a long weekend either side of the golf.

Historic Old tow Girona

Play It Before 2031

Ryder Cup venues rarely get quieter as the event approaches. Valderrama’s profile only grew after 1997, and Camiral will follow the same curve — more attention, fuller tee sheets, and eventually a course that plays host to the loudest week in golf. Six years is not a long runway. The Stadium and Tour courses are booking-ready now, at a stage where a serious golfer can play the same fairways the world’s best will contest without the surrounding circus.

Camiral joins a shortlist of courses that will only get harder to book quietly. Browse Costa Brava golf holidays and get there ahead of 2031.

The Tournament That Discovered Sergio García Returns to Valencia This Week

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Before the Majors, They Play El Saler

Every July, the future of European golf assembles on the Mediterranean coast south of Valencia, and few people outside junior golf circles notice. This week is no exception. The European Young Masters 2026 begins today at Parador de El Saler, bringing together 120 of the continent’s best under-16 golfers from 33 countries, competing individually and in the Nations’ Cup team format. It is a small event by spectator standards. It is not a small event by any other measure.

A Roll Call Worth Knowing

120 of the continent's best under-16 golfers from 33 countries
The names attached to this tournament’s history explain why it matters. The first European Young Masters was held in 1995, and its inaugural boys’ champion was Sergio García. Since then the boys’ and girls’ titles have passed through the hands of Rory McIlroy, Viktor Hovland, Jon Rahm, Carlota Ciganda, Suzann Pettersen, Georgia Hall, and Matt Fitzpatrick, among others. Whoever lifts the trophy this weekend joins that list. Nobody watching will know yet whether they belong on it. (Polski Związek Golfa)

The Course Doing the Testing

El Saler is not a gentle proving ground. Built in 1968 by Javier Arana, widely regarded as the defining architect of Spanish golf, the course sits inside the El Saler Natural Park on the Mediterranean shore, its front nine running through beach-links terrain reminiscent of Scotland and its back nine turning inland through pine forest.

120 of the continent's best under-16 golfers from 33 countries

Bernhard Langer holds the course record. Professionals, amateurs, institutions, and the specialised press have long ranked El Saler among the finest course layouts anywhere. (European Golf Association) Golfers wanting to walk the same links can do so at El Saler Golf Course, with the on-site Parador de El Saler putting rooms a short walk from the first tee.

A Nations’ Cup With Real Stakes

Alongside individual medals, the tournament runs a Nations’ Cup: each country’s three best daily scores from its four representatives are combined, and the lowest total after three rounds of stroke play wins. Spain won that inaugural Nations’ Cup in 1995 and has claimed it more times than any other country since — a small but pointed detail for a tournament staged on home Valencian soil.

European Young Masters 2026

Junior tournaments rarely make headlines, and that is precisely why they reward attention. Somewhere in this week’s field at El Saler is very possibly a name that will be familiar within a decade. Golfers keen to test the same coastline for themselves can browse Costa Blanca golf holidays and see what drew Arana, Langer, and now Europe’s best juniors to this stretch of Mediterranean links.


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