DP World Tour Rejected LIV Golf’s Attempt to Pay Jon Rahm’s Fines
The Saudi-backed circuit wanted to lift sanctions for Jon Rahm and others, allowing them to play on the DP World Tour, along with other concessions. But as Bob Harig explains, the DPWT’s alliance with the PGA Tour is taking precedence.
Bob Harig
Paying Jon Rahm’s fines in order to play on the DP World Tour and maintain Ryder Cup eligibility isn’t as easy as it sounds.
Paying Jon Rahm’s fines in order to play on the DP World Tour and maintain Ryder Cup eligibility isn’t as easy as it sounds. / Matt Marton/Imagn
The easy and perhaps most straightforward approach would be to pay the fines. Jon Rahm can certainly afford whatever amount the DP World Tour is levying against him. And LIV Golf would undoubtedly pay the seven-figure sum and might even round up.
But nothing is that easy, certainly not in golf’s fractured world. Not when it comes to LIV Golf and its disruptive nature, nor the quest by the DP World Tour to uphold its rules and enforce its sanctions—even at the expense of losing one of its biggest draws.
According to a source with knowledge of the situation, Sports Illustrated has learned that prior to the back-and-forth between Rahm and the DP World Tour last week that saw him appeal his sanctions—allowing him to play in upcoming events—LIV Golf sought to strike a deal with the DP World Tour that would wipe out the penalties for LIV players while offering various concessions and a monetary payout from the league.
The DP World Tour, which has its flagship event this week, the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, declined the offer.
Rahm last week averted controversy while simply delaying it. He elected to appeal the penalties the DP World Tour placed on him and other LIV Golf players who want to compete in the Tour’s events.
By doing so, Rahm will be allowed to play at next week’s Spanish Open, a step in the process toward becoming eligible for the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black.
At its simplest, Rahm—as well as another Ryder Cup hopeful from LIV Golf, Tyrrell Hatton—is in violation of the DP World Tour’s conflicting events policy which requires a release to play elsewhere. In April 2023 the Tour won a U.K. arbitration case that allows it to enforce its penalties. Rahm somehow winning an appeal appears unlikely.
All of that seems simple enough. The players who went to LIV Golf knew the rules. The DP World Tour is enforcing them.
But this is not about the money, per se. LIV Golf to date has paid some £12 million (approximately $15.75 million) in fines for LIV golfers to compete in DP World Tour events—with another £10 million outstanding. Rahm could scrounge up what he owes, without question.
To Rahm and his representatives, and to LIV officials who have sought to work on his behalf, putting up barriers to competition while DP World Tour sponsors want him competing and the European Ryder Cup—and teammates such as Rory McIlroy—clearly want him on the team is a curious strategy.
“They are hurting their own events and their own sponsors,” a source said. “These are roadblocks that are a detriment and not helping.”
The source said that LIV Golf sought a resolution in August that would eliminate the fines and clear the way for LIV players to compete in DP World Tour events without the various restrictions.
LIV representatives met with DP World Tour officials and proposed schedule adjustments that would assure LIV events would not be played against some of the Tour’s more prominent events (such as this week’s LIV Golf Dallas tournament, which is the same time as the DP World Tour’s BMW PGA Championship), an exemption category for DP World Tour players into the 10 International Series events on the Asian Tour that carry $2 million purses, and cash.
The amount was to be £6 million to put towards purses with the ability to add more if needed.
The offer was rejected.
In response, a DP World Tour spokesman told SI: “We met with them and listened to their proposal but did not accept it, as our view remains that the focus should continue to be on all stakeholders working together to reach an overall solution that benefits our sport.”
Last week, Rahm was ready to walk away from his country’s Open and the Ryder Cup over the issue. He questions why the rules have changed, allowing him to appeal his fines, while other players earlier this year had no choice but to pay them in order to compete. That was the case for Martin Kaymer at the BMW International Open in Germany, for example, and for Thomas Pieters at a tournament in his home country of Belgium.
At the last minute, Rahm’s agent, Jeff Koski, sent an email to DP World Tour CEO Guy Kinnings on Thursday requesting an appeal of the fines that would avert the immediate fallout.
