The 2025 Ryder Cup might not start until next September, but when we get there, we will look back on key moments in 2024 which had huge consequences for the match’s outcome.
If Team Europe, who won the Ryder Cup in 2023 in Italy as underdogs, were without Jon Rahm next time, it’s extremely unlikely that champagne will be popped in the blue and gold dressing room at Bethpage.
In three appearances for Europe at the last three Ryder Cups, Rahm has only lost three out of 12 matches and won six. He beat Tiger Woods in the singles on his debut in 2018, was a beacon of light in a dim European performance in 2021, and forged a partnership with Tyrrell Hatton in 2023 which felt it could never lose.
Rahm, as well as Hatton, subsequently joined the LIV Golf League after Europe beat America at Marco Simone, casting doubt over their Ryder Cup futures. It is very difficult to envisage a European team winning an away Ryder Cup that doesn’t include this two-time major-winning Spaniard. Hatton’s absence would also be significantly detrimental.
The most basic criterion for golfers from the continent looking to play at the Ryder Cup is maintaining their membership on the DP World Tour. Rahm is still a member, but looked on the brink of relinquishing his card as we approached the circuit’s 2024 season finale.
Let’s break down how Rahm salvaged his membership and what this means for his Ryder Cup hopes in 2025.
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Jon Rahm: Ryder Cup spot will be vital for Europe’s chances at Bethpage
In 2023, the DP World Tour earned the right to fine and suspend players who joined the LIV Golf League for competing in conflicting tournaments as per the circuit’s conflicting tournament regulations.
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So, for each LIV Golf event Rahm played in 2024, having signed for the Saudi-funded league ahead of the 2024 season, he picked up fines and suspensions. But it came to light earlier in 2024 that despite these sanctions, players like Rahm could plot their way around them and time it so the fines could be paid, suspensions served, and they could compete in the required quota of four DP World Tour events to keep membership.
You need to be a DP World Tour member to represent Europe against the USA.
The Spaniard kept his card in last-gasp fashion for the 2025 season. He hadn’t made a DP World Tour start until the start of August 2024, which left fans confused as to how he could keep his membership in Europe and be eligible for the Ryder Cup.
Rahm played in the Olympics, which counted as one, then entered the Spanish Open, the event he was so proud to have won a third time in 2022, emulating the hat-trick of titles won by his hero Seve Ballesteros.
It then came to pass that he appealed his fines, and while this appeal was ongoing, he played in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship and the Andalucia Masters. Four boxes ticked, and his membership was safe.
There isn’t an apparent end in sight for Rahm and Hatton’s fine appeal process. The cynic might claim the powers that be in Europe draw it out until after the Ryder Cup, or to a point where the pair will still be eligible to compete against America in the biennial dust-up on Long Island.
The European Ryder Cup qualification process now concerns just one points list. Rahm is eligible for all of the majors, and these are virtually the only events in which he can earn Ryder Cup qualification points. He is a two-time major champion, and top performances in these events could be enough to earn points for an automatic spot, which is in the top six of the points list. Form in LIV Golf events has no bearing on a player’s standing in the points list.
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This isn’t to say European captain Luke Donald can’t value Rahm’s LIV Golf form himself and grant him one of the six captain’s picks (should he need one). He most likely will watch his LIV form with keen intent. The same could be said for Hatton. For as long as the appeal process still allows the Spaniard and his Legion XIII teammate to delay addressing their fines, they will be eligible for Team Europe.
At the 2025 PGA Championship, Rahm was asked if captain Donald had reassured him about a fourth straight Ryder Cup start:
“That’s a question for Luke. It’s his team. Hopefully, I can qualify, and we don’t have to question it. I would like to think that personally I am, but it’s not up to me.”
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