Padraig Harrington has a deep understanding of Team Europe’s inner workings, but even the 2021 Ryder Cup captain doesn’t know how to approach the looming issue facing one of its biggest stars.
Last week, the DP World Tour granted conditional releases to eight LIV Golf members, allowing them to play in LIV events without being fined by the DP World Tour. The eight players, including Tyrrell Hatton, agreed to pay their previous fines, drop all appeals and play in additional DP World Tour events. As long as those LIV Golf members uphold their end of the agreement, they will remain DP World Tour members in good standing, allowing them to remain Ryder Cup-eligible. The deal was made between the DP World Tour and each individual, with LIV Golf not acting as an intermediary.
Jon Rahm, who has said that his DP World Tour fines exceed $3 million, was not among the eight, putting his Ryder Cup future in doubt.
Speaking at the launch of Ireland’s International Sports Diplomacy Strategy, Harrington was asked how Team Europe should handle the Jon Rahm situation if a U.K. arbitration court rules that Rahm has to pay the fines he has accumulated since joining LIV Golf late in 2023 — fines Rahm has said he will not pay. Harrington didn’t have an answer, but he knows that whoever the captain is, be it Luke Donald or some fresh blood, will be trying to find a way to get Rahm on the team for the 2027 Ryder Cup at Adare Manor.
“I don’t know the politics of it. But if you’re the Ryder Cup captain, you’d be doing everything you can get him on your team,” Harrington said, via the Irish Times. “I don’t know where the rank and file sit. I don’t know where the tournament committee [of the DP World Tour] is sitting. I don’t know where the administration is sitting … the difficulty right now is, what’s the European Tour’s next step? They’ve included these guys. How do they say to those guys, now we’re doing something different? I don’t know if there’s other options. Was that the last option?”
While Rahm’s Ryder Cup status seems murky, Harrington doesn’t see a universe where one of Team Europe’s foundational stars isn’t leading the charge to win their third Ryder Cup in a row.
“But there’s no way the captain and the team will want to go into a Ryder Cup without Jon Rahm, and you know, maybe he’s relying on that, and he can rely on it right now,” Harrington said. “There’s no doubt about that. I have a very good relationship with Jon, as I do with all my teammates of 2021. He will be forever my teammate, and I will do everything I can to support and help him going forward.”
At LIV’s season-opener in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Rahm said he was encouraged by progress with the DP World Tour as they worked to resolve an issue that Rahm was aware of when he decided to defect to LIV.
“I personally would say I don’t know too much about the matter,” Rahm said. “Obviously, I think at first, managers are going to be taking care of that early on. I don’t know what the negotiations look like. Obviously, they’re going to players individually to make different deals. I don’t know what it may be or what it’s going to look like, but I’m happy to see that looking for a path forward for LIV players to be able to play on both tours and not to get penalized.”
Rahm and Hatton were eligible to play in the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black because their appeal had not yet been heard. Hatton has agreed to drop his appeal as part of the deal with the DP World Tour, but Rahm will continue to wait for the arbitration court to hear his case. In 2023, a U.K. arbitration court ruled that the DP World Tour could impose sanctions upon members who violated its conflicting events rules.
At the Hero Dubai Desert Classic in January, Rory McIlroy didn’t mince words when asked what Rahm and Hatton should do. McIlroy noted that the Europeans jabbed the Americans hard at Bethpage over getting a stipend to play in the Ryder Cup. To the five-time major winner, the answer for Rahm and Hatton is simple: cut the check and get on with it.
“Look, this is my opinion,” McIlroy said at the Dubai Desert Classic. “We went really hard on the Americans about being paid to play the Ryder Cup, and we also said that we would pay to play in Ryder Cups. There’s two guys that can prove it. Great.”
While Jon Rahm and other members of LIV Golf have complained that the DP World Tour’s fines are unnecessary, McIlroy doesn’t believe they have an argument. The rules are the rules.
“I think any organization or any members’ organization like this has a right to uphold its rules and regulations,” McIlroy said at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic. “What the DP World Tour is doing is upholding its rules and regulations. We, as members, sign a document at the start of every year, which has you agree to these rules and regulations.
“The people that made the option to go to LIV knew what they were. So, I don’t see what’s wrong with that.”
For now, Rahm’s fines will continue to accumulate until his appeal is heard. The DP World Tour offered a way to make it all go away. But Rahm isn’t budging, leaving a Ryder Cup question hanging in the air as the golf world starts to turn its attention toward Adare Manor in 2027.
