Team Europe stars Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton were only allowed to compete at the Ryder Cup after lodging appeals against the DP World Tour, which could hinder their participation in the future.
Ryder Cup Week is officially underway, with the prestigious competition beginning on Friday before a champion is crowned on Sunday, Sept. 28. Rahm and Hatton are among Europe’s best players, while World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler will partner Bryson DeChambeau.
Rahm and Hatton are two of the LIV Golf representatives at the Ryder Cup, but are still fighting fines imposed by the DP World Tour for playing in LIV events. They are still locked into the appeal process, which allowed them to compete at the Ryder Cup in Bethpage, New York.
After several stars began joining LIV Golf, the DP World Tour handed out fines and suspensions. Sergio Garcia, Lee Westwood, and Ian Poulter were disciplined, but Rahm and Hatton are still appealing.
If they had not appealed, both would have been banned from the competition this year. There is no deadline for Hatton and Rahm’s latest appeal, and the latter forgot about the situation entirely.
“You know as much as I do,” Rahm told reporters regarding his appeal. “I have no idea. I have no clue. To be fair, I completely forgot about, which is a good thing. I hope I forget about it until it happens.”
Rahm has zero intention of paying his large fines and believes that his Ryder Cup status is safe for the future. While delighted to be a member of Team Europe, Rahm is disappointed that fellow Spaniard and Ryder Cup legend Sergio Garcia failed to make the cut.
“He’s a good friend of mine, he’s a Spanish player, and the moments we shared in Whistling Straits and Paris,” Rahm said. “Personally I’m always going to want him around. He did play good early on in the year, very, very good.
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“He was playing incredible golf, maybe in some parts of the world that you weren’t watching. It seemed like from April on, he didn’t keep that level. So I don’t think he helped himself.
“I understand that while we are not earning points or the rankings, we need to make a really strong case to be picked. Had he kept that level he might have been on the team but he didn’t play as good as he could have. Subjectively, I’m always going to root for him.”
Garcia was devastated when he received the bad news from Europe captain Luke Donald, and the decision led to him withdrawing from the Irish Open. “I felt like I was so looking forward to being a part of that team, and so I felt like mentally, you know, mentally it was kind of tough,” Garcia told GolfMagic.
“I didn’t want to go there and not be fully engaged in the tournament and stuff, so I just decided to take a little bit of time off and spend it with the family and do a couple of things, you know, some things outside of golf and just kind of reboot a little bit, recharge the batteries.”