Henrik Stenson has shared what he has been told about the fines being handed out to the likes of himself and Jon Rahm that he simply does not understand.
Henrik Stenson is one of the players in the field this week at Royal Troon who knows what it takes to win The Open Championship, with the Swede winning at the South Ayrshire course eight years ago after an incredible battle with Phil Mickelson.
Of course, Stenson is one of the LIV Golf stars teeing it up at Troon, and with that, the debate over the split in the game will start up again.
The 48-year-old was not one of the first players to make the jump to LIV, but his move did cause particular controversy in 2022 as it saw him stripped of the captaincy of Team Europe at the following year’s Ryder Cup.
Henrik Stenson hits out at what he’s heard about Jon Rahm
Jon Rahm made his own move to LIV shortly after the Ryder Cup, with Tyrrell Hatton following him and joining his Legion XIII team.
Those who remained members of the DP World Tour were fined, with Rahm and Hatton continuing to receive a penalty every time they tee it up for a LIV event.
But, as it turns out, the pair are seemingly not being penalised quite as harshly as some of those who previously joined LIV. And speaking to The Telegraph, Stenson explained that he is baffled by the way the cases have been handled by the DP World Tour.
“Yeah, those of us who came over early have been treated differently to those who followed,” he said.
“I’ve been told that my fine for each individual LIV competition I played in before I resigned my membership are twice what Jon is getting now. How does that work? Are they saying I am worth twice what Jon is? It’s the other way around, surely, if not more. That’s a big compliment, if so. It’s about people at the top not losing face isn’t it and yeah, about the Ryder Cup, too?”
Why the DP World Tour may want to fine Spaniard less
Only the DP World Tour will know why the fines are different, if that is indeed the case. But there are clearly a couple of reasons why they may want to take that stance.
Clearly, they would have initially wanted to deter anyone thinking of joining LIV from doing so, so strong fines would have been a good way to send out that message.
And, as Stenson suggests, the DP World Tour probably do not want Rahm and Hatton to burn their bridges with the tour in a way which rules them out of being on Europe’s Ryder Cup team in 2025. These are two players at the peak of their powers, so not having them in New York would make Europe’s uphill task all the more challenging.
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