PGA Tour champion threatens Jon Rahm 'I want to wring your neck'

Ex-PGA Tour champion Arron Oberhalser has sharply criticized Jon Rahm and warned he would 'wring his neck' following remarks Rahm made before this week's PGA Championship.

Rahm aims to secure his third victory in a potential career Grand Slam by winning at Valhalla Golf Club.

Rahm is under suspension from the PGA Tour due to his multi-million-pound agreement with LIV Golf, the contentious tour backed by Saudi Arabia, signed in December.

Despite his switch to LIV, he told reporters before the PGA Championship that he still views himself as a member of the PGA Tour.

"I’m still a PGA Tour member, whether I’m suspended or not," Rahm asserted. "You guys keep saying 'the other side', but I still want to support the PGA Tour and I think that’s an important distinction to make. I don’t feel like I’m on the other side. I’m just not playing there."

Oberhalser, however, did not take Rahm's comments lightly, unleashing a heated tirade on the Golf Channel without mincing words.

Oberhalser vented, "He (Rahm) doesn’t get it. To this day, he doesn’t get it. This is a guy who wanted a position, or wanted to be heard, from what I understand, either a board position, policy board.

"He wanted to be heard on this whole thing before he went to LIV and I feel like he wasn’t as heard as much as he probably should have been. And now I’m glad he wasn’t in that position because he doesn’t get it."

"As a PGA Tour player and as a PGA Tour member, still a card-carrying PGA Tour member and someone who supports the PGA Tour, I'm not happy with what’s going on right now obviously, I’m incensed by the level of naivety, that you don’t get it, you still don’t get it.

"You’re going to sit there and tell me you still feel like a PGA Tour member. I mean, I wanted to wring his neck through the television. I’m that mad right now. I’m that mad, and every player in that locker room, if they watched that, should be absolutely incensed with him."

Despite the controversy, players affiliated with LIV Golf, like Rahm, are still eligible to participate in major tournaments. Rahm is set to compete in Kentucky this week, following an underwhelming defense of his Masters title. He is scheduled to play the first two rounds of the PGA Championship, beginning Thursday, with Rickie Fowler and Cameron Young.