Jon Rahm’s Ryder Cup future more uncertain than ever – just ask him

BOLINGBROOK, Ill. — The Ryder Cup is still more than a year away, but Jon Rahm’s involvement remains as murky as ever. He is alone in this endeavor, and he knows it.

Rahm has his sights set on playing three DP World Tour events in the next six weeks, which would normally be an easy addition to the schedule, but these are no normal times. Rahm also has two LIV events in his next six weeks and a new baby joining the family. But before that happens, Rahm has to do something about the fines he’s been hit with by the DP World Tour. Either pay the fines or appeal them, as Tyrrell Hatton recently did. Otherwise, Rahm won’t be playing in the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black next fall. (Obligatory asterisk: We live in fluid times. Rules can change. Rory McIlroy essentially asked for things to change the moment Rahm committed to LIV Golf.)

It’s been talked about more and more as the summer has progressed. Rahm needs to play four tournaments on the DP World Tour this season to retain his 2025 membership, which is his mandatory ticket to the Ryder Cup team. So far, he’s played just one, the Olympic Games in France, which counted toward his total. According to Rahm, he’s entered three tournaments to meet that minimum, starting with the Spanish Open in three weeks, the Dunhill Links a week later and the Andalucia Masters, also in Spain.

However, according to the DP World Tour, Rahm is currently ineligible to play.

“Jon has outstanding sanctions for violations of the DP World Tour’s conflicting tournament rules,” a Tour spokesperson said. “Until those sanctions are resolved, he will not be allowed to compete in any DP World Tour event.”

Those “sanctions” are suspensions and fines imposed on him for every start he makes at LIV Golf. From the earliest days of professional golf’s civil war, the DP World Tour has handed out one-tournament suspensions and £100,000 fines to its members who play tournaments without conflicting Tour event releases. While Rahm is known to have enough open weeks in his schedule to find room for the one-week suspensions, he clearly has no interest in paying the fines.

“I’m not a big fan of the fines,” Rahm said from the LIV Golf individual championship on the outskirts of Chicago, where he and Joaquin Niemann held a joint news conference on Wednesday.

“I think I’ve been open about that. I don’t intend to pay the fines and we’ll keep trying to talk to (the DPWT) about how we can make this happen. I’ve said many times that I’m not going to the Spanish Open for the glory or anything else. I think it’s my duty to Spanish golf to be there and I want to play in Sotogrande as well.

“At that point, it would almost be a disservice not only to me but to Spanish golf not to let me play. So yeah, that’s why we’re trying to talk to them and make that happen. I’d also like to play the Dunhill (Links Championship). I’ve got a good friend who asked me to play, and Johan is a great, great ambassador for golf. I’d love to be able to play all those events.”

At this point, Rahm finds himself in a rules-are-rules situation. But not a completely hopeless one. Rahm’s Legion 13 teammate, Tyrrell Hatton, has been fighting the same battle but was allowed to play without penalty after appealing the sanctions, taking advantage of a middle-of-the-road, somewhat undefined stay-of-penalty that allowed Hatton to play in the Betfred British Masters 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 formality that Hatton has sought out that Rahm apparently hasn’t. He hasn’t appealed his sanctions.

Are we at a stalemate? It seems so. But there is a deadline to all this. Rahm revealed that the application period for spots in the Spanish Open closes at noon on Thursday. He may have a grace period to pay fines or file an appeal in the days that follow, but the dates of the Spanish Open are not changing. It starts in two weeks, in Madrid.

“I think I not only have to play those three, I want to play those events,” Rahm said. “They’re fun. My last experience at Dunhill wasn’t good, so maybe I’ll get a little bit of redemption, even though it’s probably a bit much to be the fourth week in a row after having a baby, especially with the Scottish weather and Carnoustie. But I’m still looking forward to some really fun golfing in the future.”

Golf fans may recognise parts of this situation, particularly LIV Golf fans. Some of LIV’s first commitments were stalwarts of Europe’s top Ryder Cup teams. Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter, Henrik Stenson and Sergio Garcia have all shone in previous Ryder Cups, but were not involved in the 2023 Cup after resigning their membership.

The final days of Garcia’s membership were marred by a dispute over unpaid fines. Lee Westwood admitted to having more than $1 million in unpaid fines from the DP World Tour earlier this year, penalties that have barred him from playing in the Senior Open Championship until he clears them.

Poulter, one of the key players to appeal the sanctions in the summer of 2022, also resigned shortly after losing that appeal in April 2023. Will Hatton’s appeal suffer a similar fate?

“That side of it is a little messy,” Hatton told Golf Digest two weeks ago.