One answer from Rory McIlroy about Jon Rahm’s future Ryder Cup involvement was incredibly telling, writes Ben Parsons.
Rory McIlroy spoke for more than three minutes about the Jon Rahm saga at Bay Hill, but his argument on an increasingly complex and messy situation could be distilled into just nine weighty words.
“The Ryder Cup is bigger than any one person.”
On the same day Luke Donald officially returned for a third term as European Ryder Cup captain, McIlroy weighed in on the deal signed by eight LIV Golf players that will enable them to play on the breakaway league without incurring fines and suspensions on the DP World Tour.
Rahm was the only one unable to reach an agreement and the row escalated this week when the Spaniard accused the DP World Tour of ‘extorting’ its own players. Tyrrell Hatton has agreed to pay all his outstanding fines, participate in additional stipulated events and withdraw his pending appeals against the circuit to earn these conditional releases. But Rahm is refusing to budge as he believes playing two extra events at the Tour’s discretion is unfair.
“I did tell them lower that to four events, like the minimum says, and I’ll sign tonight,” Rahm revealed at LIV Golf Hong Kong. “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.”
McIlroy clearly cannot fathom the conclusion that Rahm has reached. He believes six events “isn’t a heavy lift” to end the standoff and wipe his slate clean.
“There’s a reason eight of the nine guys took that deal,” McIlroy explained. “I think it’s a really good deal. Obviously Jon doesn’t think so and he’s well within his rights to think that way. I just don’t see what more the Tour can do to accommodate these guys to retain their membership.”
McIlroy was then asked whether he is concerned about Rahm missing next year’s match in Ireland because of this ongoing fallout.
“It’s bigger than all of us,” he continued. “We come and go. Players pass through the system. We should all be grateful that we have a platform like the Ryder Cup that we can play on and that we can showcase our skills and be a part of something that’s obviously way bigger than ourselves. At the end of the day it’s about the team and no one player is bigger than the team.”
McIlroy’s answer here piqued interest because it signals a subtle but important shift in his thought process. When Rahm joined LIV before the 2024 season, there was speculation that his Ryder Cup participation could come to an abrupt end. Other high-profile European stars like Sergio Garcia, Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter all resigned from the DP World Tour due to penalties they were incurring for playing on LIV and have had no involvement in the Ryder Cup since.
“Jon is going to be in Bethpage in 2025 so, because of this decision [to join LIV], the Tour are going to have to rewrite the rules for Ryder Cup eligibility, absolutely,” McIlroy claimed back in December 2023. “We’d certainly miss and need Jon at Bethpage.”
In that instance, Rahm belatedly appealed his sanctions in a loophole that allowed him to retain his membership and play a leading role in Europe’s famous win in New York.
But McIlroy’s change in tone ahead of this week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational was notable. “The DP World Tour is well within its rights to protect itself as a members’ organisation and a business,” he said at Bay Hill. “If you asked any DP World Tour member about the deal that they have cut with the LIV guys, I think they would all say that it was pretty generous.”
There’s no suggestion yet that Rahm will “lose the locker room” by standing his ground here. McIlroy will of course want the best possible European dozen in place at Adare Manor. But unlike in the build-up to Bethpage, McIlroy clearly won’t go into bat for Rahm this time around. There will be no external pressure from Europe’s biggest star on Wentworth HQ to find a compromise.
Like this article? See more TG content in your feed! Click here to add Today’s Golfer as a preferred source on Google.
So could the prevailing concern around his Ryder Cup involvement prompt Rahm to re-consider his stance? Recent history would suggest not. It was McIlroy, of course, who only recently challenged Rahm and Hatton to prove they are committed to the European cause.
“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,” the Masters champion said in Dubai, not long before Rahm rejected the peace offer. “There are two guys that can prove it.”
Rahm offered a direct response to these comments in Hong Kong. “That statement would make a lot more sense if all 12 of us were being asked to pay, not only just the two of us,” he said. “There’s more intricacy that goes into this whole situation. While I understand why he’s saying that, we all do it for the love of the game, it’s a different situation than what we usually see.
“I’ll gladly pay my way to go on the Ryder Cup, not have to pay to still be a member of the DP World Tour and fulfill a commitment that I’m fully willing to commit.”
As the DP World Tour’s chief executive Guy Kinnings outlined during a joint press conference with Donald, Rahm’s participation in Ireland will essentially hinge on whether he wins his appeal against the fines, or clears the sanctions that he strongly opposes.
Incredibly, the idea that Rahm could miss the Ryder Cup over this dispute is not as unfathomable as it once was.