Jon Rahm became the latest European Ryder Cup star to make the move to LIV Golf, following in the footsteps of fellow countryman Sergio Garcia, as well as Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter.
Jon Rahm may appear to be staking his Ryder Cup future by joining LIV Golf, but Jon Rahm’s chance to represent Team Europe at the event may not be over just yet.
Since its founding last summer, LIV has recruited many big names from his PGA and DP World Tours. They also include one of Europe’s biggest Ryder Cup stars after Sergio Garcia, Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter signed on the dotted line with the Saudi-backed circuit.
This appeared to be the end of their long Ryder Cup career as they had to give up their membership on the DP World Tour to move to Saudi Arabia.
This withdrawal means they are no longer eligible to represent the continent on the Ryder Cup stage and will therefore be absent from this year’s event in Marco Simone. One man in Italy was Rahm, who helped the Europeans secure a comfortable victory over their American rivals.
However, two months later, Rahm left the golf world in shock, with the Spaniard moving closer to joining the LIV regime in 2024. Among a whole host of questions surrounding the Spaniard’s future, one of the biggest is what it means for the 2025 Ryder Cup.
Rahm is one of Europe’s biggest stars alongside the likes of Rory McIlroy and Viktor Hovland, but his future appearances are likely to be blue. And gold is questionable. Drama aside, his LIV players in Europe are not “banned” from representing the continent against the United States as long as they have DP World Tour membership.
This is the difficult part. Rahm is eligible to maintain his Tour membership, but will face fines and sanctions from the Wentworth-based circuit for appearing on the LIV set-up. The first sanctions were imposed in April after a protracted legal battle, leading to the resignation of a number of former DP World Tour players, including Garcia, Poulter and Westwood.
Garcia made one last attempt to join Luke Donald’s team this fall after paying all outstanding fines, but the request was denied by the Tour as the Spaniard did not have a Tour membership. Of course, if Rahm wants to represent Europe and defend his title in the United States, the Masters champion could pay off the sanctions and keep his tour card, in which case he would be eligible.
This approach is obviously expensive, but it gives him the opportunity to move to Bethpage Black in 2025. But if teammate McIlroy, a three-time Ryder Cup winner, gets involved, Rahm could do something spectacular by changing the qualifying rules in his favor.
Through the saga surrounding the PGA Tour and his LIV golf, McIlroy has emerged as one of his biggest critics of the Saudi-backed league. But Mr Rahm’s importance is a different matter for Northern Irishmen, who are calling on officials to change the rules to ensure Spaniards can board flights to the US in 2025.
“Jon is going to be in Bethpage in 2025,” McIlroy told Sky Sports. “So because of this decision the European Tour are going to have to rewrite the rules for Ryder Cup eligibility, absolutely, there is no question about that. I certainly want Jon Rahm on the next Ryder Cup team.”