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Two-time major winner and LIV Golf star Jon Rahm fired back at the DP World Tour this week, accusing the European sports organization of “extorting” players by forcing them to play additional tournaments and pay fines for not getting releases to play on the competing Saudi-backed golf league.
Last month, the European Tour announced that it had reached a deal with eight LIV Golf pros that would allow them to continue playing on the rival tour without acquiring more fines for playing in events that took place during the same week as DP World Tour events.
Rahm was not one of the eight.
“I don’t like what they’re doing currently with the contract they’re having us sign,” he said, speaking to the media Tuesday at the LIV Golf Hong Kong event. “I don’t like the conditions. They’re asking me to play a minimum of six events, and they dictate where two of those have to be, amongst other things that I don’t agree with.”
Rahm, winner of the 2023 Masters and the 2021 U.S. Open, argued he never needed to be granted releases from either the PGA Tour or DP World Tour prior to joining LIV.
“I’ve been a dual member my whole career, PGA Tour and DP World Tour. Now with LIV Golf being accepted in the world rankings as part of the ecosystem, you could almost say a three-tour member, even though I’m suspended from the PGA Tour. But I’ve always been a dual member. Never once have I been asked for a release to play either one of those tours. We’ve never submitted a release. So why is it now that we need to be offering this and there’s all these penalties?”
He continued, “I just don’t like the situation. I think we should be able to freely play where we want and have the choice to play where we want and not be dictated what we do. Especially myself. I can’t speak for others, only myself.”
Rahm said the minimum requirement for membership, which is four tournaments, is something he has always done and is committed to continuing. He said in response to the latest request from the European Tour that he would sign if they lowered the requirement to four, which he said they have not agreed to.
“I don’t know what game they’re trying to play right now, but it just seems like in a way they’re using us to — they’re using our impact in tournaments and fining us and trying to benefit both ways from what we have to offer, and it’s just in a way they’re extorting players like myself and young players that have nothing to do with the politics of the game. So I don’t like the situation and I’m not going to agree to that.
“I just refuse to play six events,” he later added. “I don’t want to, and that’s not what the rules say.”
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Despite the four-tournament minimum to maintain membership, the latest conflict puts Rahm’s participation in the 2027 Ryder Cup in jeopardy.
An arbitration panel in Britain, Sports Resolution, ruled in April 2023 that the tour had the right to penalize players as a membership organization. If the panel rules in favor of the tour again, Rahm would be required to settle his fines or lose his membership, which would keep him off the Ryder Cup team next year.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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