Tiger Woods reveals he would be surprised if Jon Rahm defects to LIV Golf as Jordan Spieth insists it would be a huge blow for the PGA Tour with the Masters Champion being one of its ‘biggest assets’

Tiger Woods opened up on rumors that Jon Rahm would jump ship to join LIV Golf and admitted he would be surprised if the Spaniard made the move.

Reigning Masters champion Rahm appears to be the latest target of the leading group as it continues to aggressively poach the world's best golfers, amid reports that the 29-year-old is on the verge of a deal with the rebel circuit of Greg Norman.

The Spaniard is said to have received a multi-million dollar offer to defect to LIV Golf, with the leading players increasingly confident they can land him.

While LIV's Rebels are confident, Woods claimed he would be surprised if the world No. 3 chose to leave the PGA Tour.

“Hypothetically, I would be surprised, yes, but so many different things have happened in the last, like you said, 48 hours, but also in the last few weeks,” Woods said after his second round at the Hero World Challenge on Friday. “Things have changed and will continue to change.

Tiger Woods (left) opened up on rumors that Jon Rahm (right) would jump ship to join LIV Golf

“Our deadline here is approaching soon, so there's a lot of moving parts, a lot of different things happening very quickly because today is the first day of December. We don't have that much time.'

Woods admitted no signing would surprise him as he revealed all parties are working around the clock to finalize the deal.

“Nothing has really surprised me other than the fact that so many different things have happened so quickly,” he said. “That's one of the things that all of us as player directors have been working on, just that everything is now in a time crunch. It's 24 hours a day trying to figure it out.'

The PGA Tour, DP World Tour and the Saudi Public Investment Fund, which backs LIV Golf, face a looming December 31 deadline to finalize an agreement following the blockbuster June 6 framework deal.

After players were angered by being kept in the dark about the agreement by commissioner Jay Monahan, the PGA Tour has taken steps to improve transparency, including adding Woods as the sixth “player director” on the policy board.

However, while Woods joined the board, his friend and business partner Rory McIlroy recently resigned and was replaced by Jordan Spieth.

“I don't know exactly how this would affect the negotiations, but all in all, Jon Rahm is one of the biggest assets we have on the PGA Tour,” Spieth said.

Jordan Spieth recently joined the PGA Tour policy council as player director

“So overall it wouldn't be that good for us because we want to play against the best players in the world, and that's what Jon is.

“I know a few guys have talked to him. I know he may be considering some decisions, he may not. I really don't know, so I don't want to offend him and say he's weighing decisions when he already knows he isn't or he is. That is, in a sense, beyond my control. Obviously, I could probably say on behalf of more than 200 PGA Tour players that we really hope he stays with us.”

Woods revealed earlier this week that the board is discussing a possible route for LIV's Rebels to repair burned bridges after canceling their membership or being banned from the PGA Tour.

“As far as a trajectory, we're still working on that,” Woods admitted. “That's part of the deal that we're working on, trying to find a path, whatever that looks like. There are so many different scenarios. A lot of sleepless hours trying to figure that out and what it looks like.”