Jon Rahm failed to win his fourth Open de Espana title this past week, but did still manage to register a top 10 in Madrid following a superb 65 in the final round.
In his first appearance since helping Europe win the Ryder Cup, Jon Rahm impressed on home soil. The LIV Golf star had to battle just to make the cut initially. But he went on to finish just five shots back of Marco Penge.
Unfortunately for fans of the two-time major champion, it would appear that that is his final act in a competitive tournament in 2025.
Rahm has confirmed that he is not planning to play again until the opening event on the LIV Golf schedule in 2026, in Riyadh.
The ‘very interesting’ move Jon Rahm has made after Open de Espana
That means that the 30-year-old has decided against playing in either of the playoff events in November. It is a big blow to the DP World Tour to not have Rahm involved.
Admittedly, Rahm did not play in Abu Dhabi or Dubai 12 months ago. However, there is an intriguing addition to the story this time around.
Rahm – along with Tyrrell Hatton – has appealed the fines handed to them by the European Tour for playing in LIV Golf events. The appeal ensured that Rahm could play in the Ryder Cup at Bethpage. But the players are expected to lose the appeal.
With that, there are doubts over the Ryder Cup futures of Rahm and Hatton. But speaking on Dan on Golf, Dan Rapaport believes that Rahm has challenged the DP World Tour in the hope of sparking a significant change.
“He finishes the year without a win. And the reason I say he finishes the year without a win is he said he will not be playing again until the LIV season starts up, which means he won’t play the DP World Tour Championships over there in Dubai. And this is interesting. This is very interesting. Because the reason that Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton were eligible to play the Ryder Cup despite going to LIV Golf was that they have appealed their suspensions to the DP World Tour. You have to be a member of the DP World Tour, which is part of Ryder Cup Europe, which owns the Ryder Cup with the PGA of America, in order to be eligible for the Ryder Cup. Ostensibly, if you’re appealing your fines, you’re still trying to support the tour,” he said.
“He’s eligible to play in Dubai. And Tyrrell Hatton has been playing a bunch of European Tour events. I imagine Tyrrell Hatton will play those events in the Middle East. Tyrrell Hatton played at the beginning of the year. He actually qualified on points, largely because of how well he did on the DP World Tour. Jon Rahm is essentially calling their bluff and saying, ‘I’m not going to play and you’re not going to suspend me from the next Ryder Cup’.
“We had Ian Poulter on our show right before the Ryder Cup and I asked him, ‘is it tough that you’re not involved in the Ryder Cup anymore?’ And he said, ‘of course it’s tough, because Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton literally play golf on LIV and they’re not banned on this’. And I said, ‘yeah, it’s kind of a situation where they’re good enough at golf so the DP World Tour is going to kind of ignore it’. And I think it makes it harder to ignore when Jon Rahm says, ‘I’m not going to do that, I’m not going to go play the DP World Tour’s game. I’m going to do what I want to do. And if you suspend me from the Ryder Cup, you suspend me from the Ryder Cup. I’m Jon Rahm, you’re not going to do it’.
“It’s not a Ryder Cup year. But it does shine a light on this inconsistency within the DP World Tour’s policy. It’s almost like if you’re good enough, the rules don’t apply to you. That’s life, but I just wish there was a little more transparency because this whole ruse of, ‘well, Rahm is appealing his suspension, he still wants to support the DP World Tour’. No, he doesn’t. He doesn’t. He’s not going to play in Dubai.”
What Jon Rahm said about paying DP World Tour fines in 2024
There has been a mixed reaction to the fines in the last few years. Clearly, no one who went to LIV would have been happy about being penalised. And many notable names resigned their memberships over the issue.
It helped that LIV were previously prepared to cover the fines. That is expected to stop after this year.
Sergio García eventually paid his fines in the hope of making the 2025 Ryder Cup team.
But speaking in 2024, Rahm admitted that he had little intention of paying the fines. It was clearly a situation that he was content to not deal with.
“I’m not a big fan of the fines. I don’t intend to pay the fines and we keep trying to have a discussion with them about how we can make this happen,” he said, as reported by BBC Sport.
With LIV not paying fines any longer and the outcome of the appeal expected soon, it appears that the situation is about to come to a head.
Whether that provides all of the answers fans need is less certain.
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