Ryder Cup star ‘turned down good offer’ to join LIV Golf

LIV Golf’s pursuit of Europe’s Ryder Cup winning heroes over the winter yielded mixed success. 

In Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton, the breakaway league coaxed two of the best performing players on Luke Donald’s team that regained the trophy in such dominant fashion in Rome.

But had Greg Norman had his way, more members of Donald’s side would have ditched the traditional tours and joined the duo on the LIV circuit.

Tommy Fleetwood confirmed in January that he has turned down an offer to join LIV when speculation was rife over further significant additions.

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And Edoardo Molinari, the stats guru who helped mastermind Europe’s famous win, has now revealed that he spoke to Nicolai Hojgaard after the 2023 rookie rejected LIV’s advances.

Denmark’s Hojgaard has instead taken up one of ten PGA Tour card made available by the DP World Tour last year.

“Honestly I don’t understand players who are 20 or 30 years old and risk throwing away their careers to go to LIV Golf,” Molinari told the Gazzetta dello Sport.

“Of course if they come to me and offer me 300 million, it would change my life but they haven’t come.

“A few weeks ago I was speaking to Nicolai Hojgaard, who had a good offer but turned it down because he knows that if he continues to play well, he will still earn a lot of money but will be freer to make certain decisions and will be sure of playing the majors.”

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There is still uncertainty over the makeup of the 2025 European Ryder Cup team in New York following the defections of Rahm and Hatton.

As it stands, both are still technically eligible for the showdown at Bethpage Black after deciding not to resign their DP World Tour cards.

But they have started receiving fines and suspensions from the European circuit and will struggle to play the minimum of four events to retain their cards whilst competing in LIV events.

Molinari, who was been re-named as one of Donald’s assistants for next year’s match, is not overly concerned. “I think that in two years we will find a way to be able to pick them anyway,” the Italian added.

“The only requirement at the moment is that they are members of the European Tour. I believe someone like Rahm, whatever the cost, wants to play the Ryder Cup. So I don’t think he will resign from the European Tour.”

Rahm, meanwhile, has expressed his hopes to see a unified game.

“I think there’s a way of co-existing and, if there’s some type of union, I don’t know what that looks like,” the world No.3 said. “I just want to see again the best in the world being able to compete against the best in the world.”

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.