Whatever happens from here in golf’s civil war, one of the defining moments in shaping its future surely came when Jon Rahm decided to join LIV Golf.
Europe were able to win the 2023 Ryder Cup without utilising anyone who had signed for LIV Golf, with many of those who did jump ship approaching the end of their careers at the highest level. But with Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton moving to LIV shortly after, it was clear that changes would be made ahead of the 2025 event at Bethpage.
There appeared to be a question mark over whether Rahm would be eligible for Luke Donald‘s team in New York. He needed to play in four events to ensure that he remained a member of the DP World Tour while also paying the fines handed to him since he joined LIV.
Ian Poulter shares what the DP World Tour told Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton
At the last moment, Rahm decided to appeal the fines handed to him. And according to Ian Poulter on the Flushing It podcast, the DP World Tour have worked with Rahm to ensure that he was going to be available to play the next Ryder Cup.
“We were not accepted or wanted, tossed to the wayside. And yet, the current situation we have today, now there are players that have been asked to come back and play. I was never asked to come back and play, we were just tossed to the wayside because we made a decision,” he said.
“That is good for Jon and Tyrrell, but that is not how we were treated when we made our decision to come and play for LIV. Their fines will be dealt with after the Ryder Cup. It seems bizarre to me.
“They will told by the European Tour to appeal their fine. I think they were told that they would work with them to work out their events that they would work their suspended events between the events that they would like to play.
“It’s quite simple, the European Ryder Cup team need Jon and Tyrrell.”
Why the DP World Tour were frustrated with Rahm towards the end of the 2024 season
Whatever you think of LIV, it does appear that the DP World Tour have not covered themselves in glory either with how consistent they have been in penalising players since they made the move to LIV.
It was easy – and important – that the likes of Poulter, Lee Westwood and Graeme McDowell were handed strong punishments. As already mentioned, those players were no longer at their peak. And the DP World Tour also needed to make a real statement to ensure that they did all they could to deter more players from making the same move.
Playing an away Ryder Cup has become difficult enough, so to tackle Bethpage without Rahm and Hatton would make Europe’s task nearly impossible.
Poulter’s comments help explain why the DP World Tour were so upset with Rahm after he decided to miss the DP World Tour Championship, with the tour feeling that they had bent over backwards to help the Spaniard.
But surely, Poulter should actually be pleased to see the lines of communication between LIV’s top players and the DP World Tour improve, having made the case he joined LIV for the good of the game.
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