Several LIV Golfers had a tough start to the week after getting stranded in the Middle East due to airport closures. The limited commercial flight movement in the area, caused by unrest between the U.S., Israel and Iran, left around nine golfers with little to no option to reach Hong Kong in time for the ongoing LIV Hong Kong event. However, Jon Rahm turned savior by chartering a jet to get his stranded colleagues.

For the unversed, the Spaniard’s action saw players including the likes of Lee Westwood, Laurie Canter, Sam Horsfield, Adrian Meronk, Thomas Detry, Caleb Surratt, Tom McKibbin and Anirban Lahiri, find their way to the Hong Kong Golf Club a day ahead of the event’s start. Notably, Rahm has now come out to dub the action ‘simply his duty.’ The 2023 Masters champion sidelined the competition and stated that his only motive was to ensure all the players were safe.

Interestingly, the Legion XIII skipper admitted being doubtful of the successful and timely extraction.

Jon Rahm said, as quoted by Flushing It Golf:

“The way I see it is it’s simply my duty. I was raised with certain values, that if you have the ability and capability of helping somebody, especially in a scenario like that where my main focus essentially was getting them out of there, not necessarily playing a tournament. I remember telling Caleb (Surratt) earlier in the week, how about you forget about playing the tournament and we focus on getting you to safety and then we’ll see if you can get to Hong Kong.

With the ever-changing environment, it looked kind of dark for a second. For a second, at one point, if they went through a different extraction plan, they were going to go to Europe… It looked like coming here was going to be hard… But yeah, here they are. Never thought they would be able to come. It’s amazing that so many of them all safe and that’s the most important thing.”

Jon Rahm’s successful extraction move worked parallel to LIV Golf’s plans

Rahm’s applaudable move to extract the stranded Golfers from the Middle East took shape early in the week. According to a source close to LIV Golf, the circuit officials were exploring various options to extract its players, including flying in the players through London. However, the Spaniard stepped in sooner.

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A source close to the player told Golf Digest that Rahm was working his own channels to charter a private jet out of neighboring Oman, which is a more direct route to Hong Kong. According to the source, the player told his Legion XIII associates to ‘do whatever but get them (stranded players) out of there.’ It is also noteworthy that Rahm’s teammate Surratt had raised some alarms while explaining his situation earlier in the week.

The 21-year-old golfer told Golf Channel’s Brentley Romine on Tuesday via text:

“It was terrifying… But since then, it’s been okay. It was bad Sunday and Monday here with missile interceptions, but all day today was fine.”

All LIV Golfers were since extracted from the Middle East and are currently in Hong Kong. It is noteworthy that Rahm’s action came after the U.S. Department of ‌State on Monday called on Americans to immediately depart more than a dozen countries in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

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