Why should we care if Jon Rahm misses the Ryder Cup?

Jon Rahm says he will play at the Spanish Open in October.

He also thinks he will play for Europe again at the Ryder Cup.

Before either happens, one of two things must play out: Rahm must pay what he owes the DP World Tour (DPWT) in fines, or the DPWT spectacularly U-turns and creates new rules for him compared to others.

What is ironic, and a rather grim nuance to this story, is that the LIV Golf rebel doesn’t appear fussed about paying over $3 million in financial punishment for competing in the Saudi-funded league, given the glutinous state of pro golf.

He has been most irked by the DPWT requesting that he play at least six events to keep his membership in Europe instead of four, the quota for non-LIV members, as part of a conditional offer accepted by eight other LIV/DPWT members.

“We keep trying to talk with them and negotiate with them what the best outcome is for both of us,” Rahm said.

“They offered us a deal that I don’t think was right, but if they changed it for me to play a minimum of four events… I don’t think it’s right that they’re requiring people to play more golf than is already required for the agreement they have with them, then I would sign with them.

“It doesn’t seem like it should be a very difficult decision for them, but apparently, me playing those two extra events is where they’re drawing the line, and I told them I’m not willing to play. I’ve never played more than four events for the DP World Tour. I think the most I played one year was five, and that was for special circumstances.”

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Jon Rahm: Ryder Cup 2027 appearance looking less likely by the day

The man rewarded with a reported sum of $450 million to leave the PGA Tour and join LIV has now dropped his appeal to the fines, but still won’t pay them and also doesn’t want to meet the event quota asked of him, even after he chose to join LIV Golf to play in conflicting events as a DPWT member.

What is anything, let alone golf, without rules and punishment for continually breaking them?

They can’t just be ignored, so it is simple. Rahm is on track to leave the DPWT and end his association with the Ryder Cup, for now at least.

Of course, if the event does arrive and Rahm isn’t allowed to play, a situation that still feels unfathomable despite the current stand-off, Europe’s chances of retaining the Ryder Cup and staying unbeaten on home soil since the 1993 edition are severely under threat.

He has played in the last four Ryder Cups and won nine of his 17 matches, losing five and halving three.

“He signed a contract for LIV, and he plays 14 events and the whole thing, I get all that. But the DP World Tour is well within its rights to protect itself as a member’s organisation and as a business,” Rory McIlroy said.

“And if you asked any DP World Tour member about the deal that they have cut with the LIV guys – I think they would all say that it was pretty generous.

“There’s a reason that eight of the nine took it, because they probably think the same thing, and one guy thinks a little differently, and that’s a shame.”

His own Ryder Cup partner Tyrrell Hatton, with whom Rahm has won four out of five pairs matches against America, accepted the conditional release from the DPWT. The Englishman has as strong a case to be Europe’s talisman next year as any player, be it Rahm or even McIlroy in front of his adoring Irish crowd in Co. Limerick.

The deal was good enough for him, but not for his Legion XIII teammate – the team they both play for in the LIV league, named after a story in Rahm’s favourite childhood comic books.

Rahm could follow in the footsteps of another Spanish giant, Seve Ballesteros. Not by winning five majors, albeit that could be in Rahm’s future, but by missing a Ryder Cup in a row with the tour.

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In 1981, Ballesteros missed the matches against America over an appearance fee dispute with the European Tournament Players’ Division. He left the tour and didn’t play in events that wouldn’t pay him what he felt he was entitled to, with part of his stance being that top US players would pocket fees to compete, but not him.

The squabble continued so long that selectors John Jacobs, Neil Coles, and Bernhard Langer chose Mark James and Peter Oosterhuis to play instead. Europe was hammered at Walton Heath that time.

Rahm’s reasons for Ryder Cup exile won’t be the same, but what will be the same is the Ryder Cup. The show will go on without him, just like it did without Ballesteros.

What many won’t have predicted at that point, when he was left at home by the selectors, is that Ballesteros became the inspiration of the European dressing room. He formed an iconic partnership with Jose Maria Olazabal, captained a winning team at Valderrama in 1997, and even after his death in 2011, his spiritual presence has provided no end of motivation for the Europeans who’ve followed in his footsteps.

When Rahm left the PGA Tour to join LIV ahead of the 2024 season, he felt this decision might help to tighten the relationship and hasten the framework agreement between the tour and the Public Investment Fund, which bankrolls LIV.

It had the opposite effect.

What we learned is that while Rahm is a needle-mover and a generational talent, his actions don’t stop time, and that won’t change if he isn’t part of Luke Donald’s team in 2027.

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