Jon Rahm craves Ryder Cup appearance despite pending LIV Golf sanctions
Even though he joined LIV Golf, Jon Rahm remains steadfast in representing the Europeans at Bethpage Black.
Because of his affiliation with LIV Golf, Jon Rahm faces a bevy of sanctions and fines from the DP World Tour, which facilitates the Ryder Cup from the European side.
He does not know when arbitrators will settle those issues, but he is sure of one thing: he plans to play on the 2025 Ryder Cup team.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen in the future, but I can tell you my plan is to be on that team at Bethpage,” Rahm said on Tuesday in Dubai.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen, and I’m hoping they don’t try to settle the appeal before The Ryder Cup. I don’t think that would be good for anybody. But my plan is to be at Bethpage.”
Rahm is in the Middle East for the Hero Dubai Desert Classic, the first Rolex Series Event of the DP World Tour season. He remains a DP World Tour member, a requirement for all European Ryder Cup hopefuls. To retain membership, Rahm must compete in four DP World Tour events in a given season, so his first one will come this week at Emirates Golf Club.
It’s one of the bigger tournaments of the early season, as defending champion Rory McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood, Robert MacIntyre, and Tyrrell Hatton are also in this week’s field.
“There’s a lot of history in this event. There’s a lot of great champions in this event,” Rahm said of the Hero Dubai Desert Classic.
“It’s very, very quality championship. Again, I love the city. I love coming here. Any chance I get to come to a tournament and play this event and come to the city, to me, it’s a good opportunity.”
Rahm has never played in the Hero Dubai Desert Classic, a tournament McIlroy has won on four occasions. Other past champions include Tiger Woods, Bryson DeChambeau, Ernie Els, and Rahm’s idol, Seve Ballesteros.
“It’s a good way to start the year, right? We don’t have our first LIV event until the first week of February. That’s quite a bit of time off, right? So being able to play an event before is nice to get the competition feeling going,” Rahm added.
“And then it just helps throughout the year. It’s going to be quite tricky for me to play more DP World Tour events until after August. It’s quite a busy schedule. So it’s nice to play one early on and not have to play too many after the Ryder Cup. Towards the end, it is always difficult. I never want to fall short and possibly lose my membership. So, there are many reasons why this week was a really great choice for me in my schedule.”
The LIV Golf season ends the same week as the Tour Championship in late August, leaving Rahm with little time to compete in three more DP World Tour events. The tournaments he will play in remain to be seen, but one thing remains certain: he will do whatever he can to ensure he represents the blue and gold of Europe on Long Island, and that’s the biggest reason why he’s making his Hero Dubai Desert Classic debut this week.
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Follow him on X @jack_milko.