JOHANNESBURG — While he competes this week in South Africa, Jon Rahm continues racking up suspensions and fines from the DP World Tour for competing in a “conflicting” LIV event.
The conflict? DP World Tour members, similarly to PGA Tour members, sign regulations at the beginning of each season, agreeing to not play in televised golf competitions in the same weeks as DPWT events — at least not without an approved release from the DPWT. Since the DPWT is conducting its Hainan Classic in China this week, LIV South Africa is deemed conflicting, even if, as Rahm has pointed out numerous times, he would not have considered playing in China anyway.
While that may be old news — Rahm has received this treatment for years — what’s changed is he is no longer appealing the sanctions, the DPWT has confirmed to GOLF.com. On March 10, Rahm officially withdrew his 18-month appeal but clarified to the DPWT that he has no interest in paying his fines, which have grown north of $3 million.
The appeal, which had dragged on without meaningful progress, allowed Rahm to enter DPWT events for the last 18 months without issue, as well as compete in the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black. While the appeal existed, Rahm remained (technically, at least) a member in good standing with the tour. The Euros won an away Ryder Cup, Rahm contributed immensely and then he had one of his best, most settled offseasons. But now, at the outset of the major championship season, the impasse continues, and amid different circumstances.
In late February, the DPWT announced eight LIV players had signed conditional releases that would keep them from receiving sanctions for playing LIV events. It was an olive branch of sorts, offered for the first time, and not necessarily precedent-setting. Something changes every few months in the golf world. This deal was just for 2026, and each player’s release included different stipulations. These eight would have to play a greater minimum number of events this season — between six and eight non-major tournaments — to maintain membership. The minimum for non-LIV members is four non-majors. They also would have to play specific events outlined by the DPWT and settle up any unpaid fines. Rahm took issue with the offer for multiple reasons — particularly that he would have to play six non-majors, boosting his yearly total to 24 starts — and spoke out about it at a press conference two weeks ago.
“I don’t know what game they’re trying to play right now,” Rahm said, “but it just seems like in a way [the DPWT is] using us to — they’re using our impact in tournaments and fining us and trying to benefit both ways from what we have to offer. 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.”
Rahm has not wavered on his stance. He wants to be a DPWT member and he wants to play the normal minimum of events. He simply doesn’t believe he should receive sanctions for events he wouldn’t have considered competing in anyway, and doesn’t want to see his minimum commitment raised beyond, say, Rory McIlroy’s or Tommy Fleetwood’s. The DPWT, on the other hand, is simply trying to uphold the regulations to which all of its members agree. Somewhere in the middle is a pathway that some LIV players have found suitable, just not all of them.
Lost in the shuffle of the late-February announcement, Rahm is not the only LIV golfer who declined these conditional releases. South Africans Branden Grace and Dean Burmester both entered discussions with the DPWT while they were members earlier this year, but both declined the conditional releases and ultimately resigned their memberships. (They are not eligible for the Ryder Cup as they are not European.)
Rahm has not resigned his membership, which pulls us all into a bit of a time machine, back to September 2024, right before he filed the appeal. Rahm was accumulating fines and suspensions all throughout that summer, and it was looking like the DPWT would not allow him to play the Spanish Open, in his homeland, that fall.
Rahm has played the Spanish Open every year since he turned pro, winning it three times. He considers it his “duty” to return to his home open. He’s hopeful to play it again this fall, among three other DPWT events in September and October: the Amgen Irish Open, the BMW PGA Championship and the Dunhill Links Championship.
In a world without sanctions, Rahm would hit his four-event (non-majors) minimum for membership, like he’s done the last two years, and cruise into 2027 as a likely member of Ryder Cup Europe. But that is not the current reality of the golf world. Rahm understands this. He’s aware that standing his ground may prohibit him from playing on Luke Donald’s Ryder Cup team next fall, and he has grown comfortable with it. He’s fully aware that Spanish golf legend Seve Ballesteros once sat out a Ryder Cup via a dispute with the DPWT. To avoid that, Rahm sees a path forward, but it does not include him playing extra events.
“I did tell [the DPWT], funny enough, lower [my minimum] to four events, like the minimum says, and I’ll sign tonight,” Rahm said earlier this month. “They haven’t agreed to that. I just refuse to play six events. I don’t want to, and that’s not what the rules say.”
