Jon Rahm: Time to drop the act and show us how much the Ryder Cup means to you

None of this should come as any surprise to Jon Rahm. 

“The Ryder Cup was the biggest hurdle for me before joining,” he said just after signing a reported £450 million deal to join the LIV Golf breakaway last December.

Rahm knew the score all along. For each Saudi-funded LIV tournament he played in that conflicted with a DP World Tour event, he would pick up fines and suspensions from Wentworth HQ.

As a result, his once inevitable participation at Bethpage was thrown into doubt and even caused Rory McIlroy to tell bosses to rip up their rulebook to ensure the Spaniard would be on Luke Donald’s team.

But, as the new DP World Tour CEO Guy Kinnings promptly explained, there was no need for panic.

Despite the suspensions and fines that were upheld in a Sports Resolutions hearing last year, all Rahm had to do was plot his way around them and play the required quota of four DP World Tour events to keep his card and remain eligible.

A lifeline, perhaps.

And hearing from Rahm at this week’s LIV stop in Chicago, he appeared to have it all mapped out. With the Olympics counting as one event, he stated his intention to play the Spanish Open, Dunhill Links, and Andalucia Masters to fulfil his obligation.

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Rahm said he was “still talking to the DP World Tour”, adding: “I intend to play in Spain. I’m entered to the tournament. We entered a long time ago…”

A collective sigh of relief from the European golf fans desperate to see him back in the yellow and blue next year.

But Rahm brought them straight back to earth. “Whether they let me play or not is a different thing,” he said.

Oh. Wait. There was still a problem.

“Jon has outstanding sanctions for breaches of the DP World Tour’s conflicting tournament regulation,” a spokesperson from the Tour told bunkered.co.uk.

“Until those outstanding sanctions are resolved, he is ineligible to play in a DP World Tour event.”

The deadline for Rahm’s Spanish Open entry was noon on Thursday and he still hadn’t settled the fines that would allow him to play.

“I’m not a big fan of the fines,” Rahm said. “I’ve been outspoken about the fines. I don’t intend to pay the fines and we keep trying to have a discussion with them about how we can make this happen.”

A stalemate entirely of his own making.

Rahm is steadfastly refusing to pay the penalties he has incurred for his LIV starts. But the DP World Tour won’t budge either, and rightly so. Former Ryder Cup player Bernd Weisberger paid his fines in full to make a return from LIV to his old domain. Why should Rahm get special treatment?

As Kinnings stated in April: “We’re not in a position to be changing rules that we’ve had to go to court to defend.”

An option for the stubborn Spaniard, of course, would be a climbdown for the sake of the Ryder Cup. Reluctantly pay your fines and make it abundantly clear to fans and those in the corridors of power that you are only doing so to represent Europe on away soil.

Idealistic, we know.

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Somewhat remarkably, however, Rahm still had another get-out-of-jail free card up his sleeve – and on Thursday morning, he used it.

Tyrrell Hatton is one event away from meeting the regulations after playing last month’s British Masters. Under their regulations, the DP World Tour allowed him to play on the basis that he was appealing the severity of his fines, meaning the sanctions were temporarily paused.

At the eleventh hour, Rahm has followed suit. Like Hatton and fellow European Adrian Meronk, the Spaniard has appealed, meaning he has a stay of execution and can now fulfil his obligations by playing in his three remaining DP World Tour events.

A DP World Tour spokesperson said: “Jon Rahm has a pending appeal against sanctions imposed on him and in accordance with the DP World Tour’s Regulations, he is eligible to participate in the acciona Open de España presented by Madrid later this month.”

For what its worth, it always felt inconceivable that, in 12 months time, Donald’s European side enter the New York bearpit without Rahm. Away wins are like gold dust and we’re talking about the man who earned three-and-a-half of Europe’s nine-point tally in 2021’s humbling at Whistling Straits. Its impossible to overstate what a seismic blow his absence would be.

But that’s the risk he has been willing to take. Make no mistake, though. Regardless of this appeal, if Rahm is still not at Bethpage next September, there is only one person to blame.

With that unprecedented appeal process likely to take months, an increasingly murky future lies ahead.

Ben Parsons joined bunkered as a Content Producer in 2023 and is the man to come to for all of the latest news, across both the professional and amateur games. Formerly of The Mirror and Press Association, he is a member at Halifax Golf Club and is a long-suffering fan of both Manchester United and the Wales rugby team.