Jon Rahm lifts the Ryder Cup during Team Europe's 2023 victory.
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BOLINGBROOK, Ill. — The Ryder Cup will be around for more than a year but Jon Rahm's involvement remains as bitter as ever. You are alone in this endeavor, and you know it.
Rahm is set to play three DP World Tour events in the next six weeks, which may be an easy addition to the schedule, but this is no ordinary time. And in his next six weeks, Rahm has two LIV events and a new baby to join his family. But before that happens, Rahm needs to do something about the penalty he's facing on the DP World Tour. Pay the fines or pass them on, as Tyrrell Hatton did recently. Otherwise, Rahm will not play the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black next fall. (Obligatory asterisk: We live in fluid times. The rules can change. Rory McIlroy basically asked for things to change for the quick Rahm committed to LIV Golf.)
This is being discussed more and more as the summer progresses. Rahm needs to play four tournaments this season on the DP World Tour to maintain his 2025 membership, which is his mandatory ticket to a Ryder Cup team. So far, he has only played one, the Olympics in France, which has counted towards his total. According to Rahm, he has signed up for three tournaments to meet this minimum, starting with the Spanish Open in three weeks, the Dunhill Links a week later, and the Andalucia Masters, also in Spain.
According to the DP World Tour, however, Rahm is currently ineligible.
“Jon has outstanding penalties for violating DP World Tour conflict rules,” a Tour spokesperson said. “Until those outstanding convictions are resolved, he is ineligible to play a DP World Tour event.”
Those “sanctions” are suspensions and fines for everything he starts doing at LIV Golf. Since the early days of pro golf's civil war era, the DP World Tour has issued one-tournament suspensions and £100,000 fines to its members who play tournaments outside of events that conflict with the Tour. While it's understood Rahm has enough weeks left in his schedule to earn a one-week suspension, it's clear he's not interested in paying the fines.
“I'm not a big fan of penalties,” Rahm said at the LIV Golf Individual Championship on the outskirts of Chicago, where he and Joaquin Niemann held a joint press conference Wednesday.
“I think I have been open about that. I am not willing to pay the fines, and we keep trying to negotiate with them [the DPWT] about how we can make this happen. I've said it many times, I don't go to the Spanish Open for fame or anything else. I think it is my duty to be there for Spanish golf, and I want to play in Sotogrande.
“At that time, it would have been almost impossible not only for me but also for Spanish golf not to allow me to play. So yes, that's why we're trying to talk to them and make that happen. I would also like to play Dunhill [Links Championship]. I have a good friend who asked me to play, and Johan has been a great ambassador for the game of golf. I would love to be able to play all those events.”
At this point, Rahm runs into a rules-is-the-rules situation. But not completely hopeless. Rahm's Legion 13 teammate, Tyrrell Hatton, faced a similar battle but was allowed to play without penalty because he appealed the penalties, reaching a neutral, unspecified penalty that allowed Hatton to join Betfred. British monarchs earlier this month. It's the same thing that will allow him to play the events Rahm wants later this month. But it's a habit Hatton wishes Rahm hadn't gotten into yet. He did not appeal his punishments.
Are we stubborn? It seems. But there is a deadline for all of this. Rahm acknowledged that the entry schedule for the Spanish Open closes at noon on Thursday. He may have a grace period where he can pay the fines or make an appeal in the following days, but the dates of the Spanish Open do not change. It starts in two weeks, in Madrid.
“I think it's not just that I have to play those three, but I want to play those events,” Rahm said. They are sweet. My last experience at Dunhill I didn't play well, so maybe I'll get a little redemption, although being the fourth week in a row after having a baby might be a little too much, because of the weather in Scotland especially and Carnoustie. . But I'm still looking forward to some fun golf.”
Golf fans can see parts of this situation, especially LIV Golf fans. Many of LIV's first acts were champions of the best Ryder Cup teams in Europe. Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter, Henrik Stenson and Sergio Garcia all starred in previous Ryder Cups, but did not participate in the 2023 Cup as they canceled their membership.
The final days of Garcia's membership were marred by a dispute over unpaid fines. Lee Westwood admitted he owed more than $1 million in fines from the DP World Tour earlier this year, penalties that have prevented him from competing in the Senior Open Championship, until he makes good.
Poulter, who was one of the leading players to appeal against the ban back in the summer of 2022, also resigned after losing that appeal in April 2023. Will Hatton's appeal meet the same fate?
“That side of it is dirty,” Hatton told Golf Digest two weeks ago.
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