Some of the irritating figures in sport proper now, to me, is Jon Rahm.
He’s considerate, clever, and humorous. What he might additionally write on his relationship profile is that he’s one hell of a golfer, in all probability a generational expertise.
He understands the sport’s heritage, and he’s completely conscious of his presence in Spanish golf and his function in preserving the flame burning after Seve, Jose Maria, and Sergio earlier than him.
He has gained the US Open and the Masters, and performed in 4 Ryder Cups in a row for Europe. He downed Tiger Woods on his debut for the continent eight years in the past in Paris, and he and Tyrrell Hatton are step by step creating legendary standing as a pair on the occasion.
Although fiery and passionate on the golf course, what you may assume can be an intimidating assembly with Rahm in the event you had been to ever share the identical house with him isn’t the case. He listens to questions, and has a way of humour.
Rahm displayed all of those qualities in a current interview on Golf.com’s Sub Par podcast, which was excellently carried out by Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz, who evidently know the Spaniard away from the mic.
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Whereas I’m comfortable to sing the praises of one of many fiercest opponents within the sport of the final decade, I sadly discover myself slumping again in my chair and depressingly remembering the predicament he’s in with the DP World Tour (DPWT, previously the European Tour) because of his shock transfer to LIV Golf on the finish of 2023.
It was surreal to look at Rahm on US tv with the LIV letterman jacket on. Earlier than that, he was overtly not endeared by LIV’s format and pledged his ‘fealty’ to the PGA Tour, stating that he didn’t play golf for cash and an astronomical sign-up payment wouldn’t change his and his household’s life.
However I’m comfortable to swallow this hypocrisy. LIV Golf, bankrolled by the Public Funding Fund of Saudi Arabia and first launched in 2022, did meet a quantity that he favored. He went again on his phrase. Typically, all of us try this. You possibly can change your thoughts, and admittedly, it doesn’t matter.
Jon Rahm: DP World Tour fines have hung over his head for too lengthy
However what does matter is Rahm’s angle in direction of his punishment from the DPWT, which I simply alluded to. Earlier than he joined LIV, the likes of Sergio Garcia, Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter and Henrik Stenson, who joined LIV within the yr of its start, known as time on their DPWT memberships.
This was to keep away from paying enormous fines for enjoying in conflicting LIV occasions, after a panel dominated the DPWT might hand out sanctions in accordance with conflicting occasion guidelines. Subsequently, the likes of Rahm, who noticed this play out and who’re DPWT members, knew what would come in the event that they accepted the provide of LIV’s ex-CEO Greg Norman.
When Rahm and his LIV and Ryder Cup teammate Hatton obtained their first positive bill within the publish, it wasn’t a shock. They knew the foundations and understood the results of their actions earlier than deciding to depart golf’s established excursions for the Saudi riches.
The phrase is, Rahm is hellbent on not paying these fines, which have amounted to about $3 million, so he mentioned on the Sub Par podcast. He justified his stance by saying that he wouldn’t have performed within the DP World Tour occasions for which he has been punished for conflicting with, had he moved to LIV Golf or not.
That a lot might be true. For instance, LIV’s South Africa occasion this March falls in the identical week because the Hainan Basic on the DPWT. He virtually definitely wouldn’t play in that if he weren’t a LIV participant.
However this method flies within the face of the purpose. $3 million is perhaps some huge cash to cough up for anybody, be it you, Elon Musk, or me. However on the podcast, Rahm mentioned, hypothetically, he can be comfortable to compromise and cross over $1 million to the DPWT and name it quits.
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Oh, to be in a spot the place saying goodbye to seven figures out of your checking account barely makes your eyebrows twitch. Contemplating his transfer to LIV was reportedly price as much as £450 million, these fines are pocket change.
My argument isn’t about cash although, and neither is Rahm’s. It’s a matter of precept, and the precept I’m making use of is that his fines are the product of his personal actions, actions he knew would result in hefty punishment.
A difficulty Rahm has is that the PGA Tour and the PIF, regardless of saying a framework settlement/peace deal in June 2023, are now not in superior talks, and golf’s divide feels as removed from becoming a member of collectively as ever.
Rahm probably thought his transfer can be the catalyst for unification, and unification might need meant eradicating his fines. This hasn’t occurred, although.
He and Hatton used the loophole of interesting their sanctions in 2024, to kick the can down the highway for over a yr, proper previous 99 Quaker Assembly Home Street in Farmingdale, the place you’ll find Bethpage Black and host of the 2025 Ryder Cup.
The authorized representatives seem to nonetheless be tussling over an answer. If their fines weren’t underneath attraction, Rahm and Hatton wouldn’t be allowed to play on the DPWT, which might finally result in surrendering membership. No membership = no Ryder Cup.
Rahm advised the podcast that he doesn’t assume he has performed in his final Ryder Cup, although.
Everyone knows, together with him, that Europe would wrestle to beat America with out him and Hatton within the group room. This pair pull up timber for Group Europe and may win holes and matches by pure willpower.
The DPWT and Group Europe know this too, which places him in a robust place regardless of the monetary penalties spamming his disciplinary report. A compromise of kinds, the place all sides can stroll out of the room reluctantly shaking arms and turning away, is the doubtless end result.
Now that he has seen a path open up from the PGA Tour, following Brooks Koepka’s return to the US circuit, Rahm’s group is perhaps extra inclined to settle the punishments, spend one other yr with LIV, then go away. That’s only a concept.
This is the reason I’m conflicted. Rahm, the golfer and the individual, look like nice, however there’s a lingering stench of entitlement in a scenario the place he not solely needs his cake to eat it, but in addition, to devour the entire bakery.
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