Jon Rahm ripped the DP World Tour and said it was trying to extort players over its deal to let some return from LIV Golf.
Rory McIlroy doesn’t really understand what Jon Rahm is so upset about.
The fact that Rahm turned down a deal that would eliminate future fines and pave the way for him to continue with the Ryder Cup while maintaining his status with LIV Golf, McIlroy said on Wednesday ahead of the Arnold Palmer Invitational, is a “shame.”
“In my opinion, it’s a really generous deal,” McIlroy said. “Like, it’s a much softer deal than what Brooks took to come back and play on the PGA Tour.”
Rahm erupted on the DP World Tour this week, and claimed that the European league is trying to extort LIV Golf players while allowing them to come back. The DP World Tour has granted conditional releases to eight players to compete in LIV Golf this season. The league said that those golfers had agreed to pay all outstanding fines they received for leaving the Tour in the first place, and agreed to play in more than the four minimum DP World Tour events needed to retain membership.
Rahm, a former No. 1 golfer in the world who was one of the biggest names to jump to the Saudi Arabian-backed circuit a few years ago, declined that deal. He said that the league was going to make him play in six events each season, including two that they would get to choose. Rahm would also have to pay his fines with the league, which are reportedly as much as $3 million.
“I don't know what game they're trying to play right now," Rahm said. "But it just seems like in a way they're using our impact in tournaments and fining us and trying to benefit both ways from what we have to offer, and it's just in a way they're extorting players like myself and young players that have nothing to do with the politics of the game.
"So I don't like the situation and I'm not going to agree to that."
Like McIlroy said, that’s a much simpler deal than the one that Brooks Koepka made in order to return to the PGA Tour earlier this year. He had to donate $5 million to charity, can’t compete in any signature events without earning his way into the field and can’t claim any FedExCup bonus money and more. The Tour estimated it could cost him $85 million in potential earnings.
“Look, the European Tour can only do so much to accommodate these guys … There’s a reason eight of the nine guys took that deal, right? I think it's a really good deal,” McIlroy said. “Obviously Jon doesn't think so, and he's obviously well within his rights to think that way.
“But I just don't see what more the European Tour can do to accommodate these guys to retain their membership.”
As for the six-event minimum, McIlroy was quick to call out Rahm for that being the sticking point. That, he said, “isn’t a heavy lift.”
“I’m sure Jon doesn’t want to go to South Africa next week [for LIV Golf], but he’s going there,” McIlroy said.
“He signed a contract for LIV and he plays 14 events and the whole thing. Like I get all that. But the DP World Tour is well within its rights to protect itself as a members organization and as a business. And if you asked any DP World Tour member about the deal that they have cut with the LIV guys they would, I think they would all say that it was pretty generous. So again, there's a reason that eight of the nine took it, because they probably think the same thing, and one guy thinks a little differently, and that's a shame."
What about the Ryder Cup?
Perhaps the biggest issue with Rahm not taking the DP World Tour’s deal has to do with the Ryder Cup.
Rahm, an 11-time PGA Tour winner and two-time major champion, only got to play on the European Ryder Cup team last fall as he was actively appealing previous sanctions that the DP World Tour had levied against him. If he doesn’t resolve that appeal and his dispute with the league in time for the 2027 Ryder Cup in Ireland, he may not be allowed to actually play on the team.
In order for someone to make it onto the team, they have to be an active member on the DP World Tour. While Rahm said he would make sure to fix things in time if it came to that — he’s been on every team since 2018 — McIlroy wasn’t worried about Rahm’s participation next year.
“The Ryder Cup is bigger than any one person. It’s bigger than all of us,” McIlroy said. “We come and go. Players, we pass through the system … So at the end of the day it’s about the team and no one player is bigger than the team.”
Category: General Sports
