Jon Rahm tore into the European tour Tuesday over its offer for him and other LIV Golf players to rejoin, claiming the tour was \u201cextorting players\u201d by forcing them to play additional tournaments.<\/p>\n
Rahm, competing this week in LIV Golf Hong Kong, spoke publicly for the first time since the European tour announced a deal that would require LIV players to pay previous fines for not getting releases and to compete in additional events designated by the tour.<\/p>\n
Eight players from LIV, including Tyrrell Hatton, accepted the deal. Rahm did not.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know what game they\u2019re trying to play right now,\u201d Rahm said. \u201cBut it just seems like in a way they\u2019re using our impact in tournaments and fining us and trying to benefit both ways from what we have to offer. In a way, they\u2019re extorting players like myself and young players that have nothing to do with the politics of the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I don\u2019t like the situation and I\u2019m not going to agree to that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Players are required to play four tournaments, not including the majors, to keep membership on the European tour. Rahm said the deal would have required LIV members to play six tournaments.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd they dictate where two of those have to be, among other things that I don\u2019t agree with,\u201d Rahm said. \u201cI\u2019ve been a dual member my whole career \u2014 PGA Tour and DP World Tour. … Never once have I been asked for a release to play either one of those tours. So why is it now that we need to be offering this and there\u2019s all these penalties?<\/p>\n
\u201cI just don\u2019t like the situation,\u201d he said. \u201cI think we should be able to freely play where we want and have the choice to play where we want and not be dictated what we do.\u201d<\/p>\n
The fines stem from playing LIV Golf events opposite European tour events without getting a conflicting-event release. Rahm was able to use the \u201chome tour\u201d policy on the PGA Tour to play in European tour events.<\/p>\n
Rahm said he told the European tour \u2014 known as the DP World Tour commercially \u2014 that if it lowered the minimum requirement to four tournaments, he would sign the deal.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey haven\u2019t agreed to that,\u201d he said. \u201cI just refuse to play six events. I don\u2019t want to, and that\u2019s not what the rules say.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rahm and Hatton were among those who appealed their fines for playing LIV. That case has not been heard, but the appeal allowed them to play in the Ryder Cup last year at Bethpage Black.<\/p>\n
Now the Spaniard\u2019s participation in the 2027 matches in Ireland are in question.<\/p>\n
An arbitrational panel in Britain, Sports Resolution, ruled in April 2023 the tour had the right to penalize players as a membership organization. If the panel rules in favor of the tour again, Rahm would be required to settle his fines or lose his membership, which would keep him off the Ryder Cup team next year.<\/p>\n
Rory McIlroy said in January about the fines Rahm and Hatton were facing, \u201cWe 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. There\u2019s two guys that can prove it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rahm fired back by saying his comment would make more sense if all 12 players were asked to pay, not just him and Hatton.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s more intricacy that goes into this whole situation,\u201d Rahm said. \u201cI\u2019ll 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\u2019m fully willing to commit.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP golf: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/golf<\/p>\n
Doug Ferguson, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jon Rahm tore into the European tour Tuesday over its offer for him and other LIV Golf players…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":512282,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,77,82],"class_list":["post-512281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-international","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=512281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/512282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=512281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=512281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=512281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}