Rory McIlroy doesn\u2019t see \u2018reunification\u2019 of pro golf happening, urges LIV stars to pay fines in order to be Ryder Cup eligible<\/a><\/p>\nHatton and Rahm began to accumulate fines when they moved to LIV Golf in 2024, for competing in tournaments that conflict with the DP World Tour where both are members. McIlroy suggested Hatton and Rahm should \u201cabsolutely\u201d pay their sanctions. \u201cWe were 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\u2026 there are two guys that can prove it.\u201d<\/p>\n
It left some curious as to whether McIlroy and Hatton would discuss the comments during their opening-round grouping alongside Tommy Fleetwood at the Emirates Golf Club.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t really talk about that. It was me mainly asking him if he\u2019d had any good wine over Christmas, to be honest,\u201d Hatton said. \u201cHe did. It was better than the wine I was drinking, but my wine was very nice, too. Then he was horrified to hear what my weight was on January 1st.\u201d<\/p>\n
Which was?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was 204 pounds (93 kilograms), which, at 5-foot-8 (173 centimetres), is aggressive,\u201d Hatton said, causing reporters to erupt with laughter.<\/p>\n
After winning the 2025 Dubai Desert Classic, the LIV Golf team championship with Rahm\u2019s Legion XIII squad and an away Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black, as well as a T-4 at the US Open, Hatton certainly earned an offseason break. He took the opportunity, even revealing his celebrations included installing a Guinness tap in his house.<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore the Ryder Cup, I was like, 190 [pounds, 86 kilograms],\u201d Hatton continued. \u201cSo, I put on one stone (6.35 kilograms). Yeah, I enjoyed my December. I did do some training. Zero cardio, and a lot of drinking. I had a Guinness tap in the house, which was enjoyable. And, yeah, it\u2019s now time to lose a bit of weight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hatton\u2019s LIV Golf and DP World Tour offseason didn\u2019t seem to impact his form, having opened the Dubai Desert Classic with a 70. At two-under-par, he sat five shots behind Francesco Molinari, the 2018 Open champion, who carded a 65.<\/p>\n
Although, the Englishman said his golf swing and body rotation were more cumbersome than they appeared. \u201cOh, I was turning like the Titanic,\u201d Hatton said. \u201cI can\u2019t move. I still feel pretty stiff.\u201d<\/p>\n
But back to the DP World Tour fines. Tour officials confirmed to Australian Golf Digest in Dubai that the combined total of the fines for Rahm and Hatton was several million dollars. Rahm and Hatton appealed the fines in 2024, meaning they can continue playing on the DP World Tour \u2013 which runs the European team at the Ryder Cup \u2013 until there is a hearing for their appeals.<\/p>\n
Hatton saw McIlroy\u2019s comments but insisted the Masters champion was perfectly entitled to have his own opinion.<\/p>\n
\u201cI ended up seeing what was said,\u201d Hatton said. \u201cThat\u2019s his opinion, so everyone\u2019s allowed an opinion, and I\u2019ve got nothing more to add to that. I guess something will get sorted, hopefully something soon. I think everyone\u2019s pretty keen for that to happen. So, yeah, we\u2019ll see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[Photo: Ross Kinnaird] Appeals for Tyrrell Hatton and Jon Rahm against DP World Tour fines are a hot…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":432161,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[4225,64,63,118461,13735,755,138747,15811,44,756,85,2124,6009],"class_list":["post-432160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-article","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-dp-world-tour","tag-fines","tag-golf","tag-golf-digest","tag-jon-rahm","tag-news","tag-rory-mcilroy","tag-sports","tag-tyrrell-hatton","tag-weight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}