Lynch: Is Jon Rahm coming to his senses or pushing to the brink? One move is a guaranteed loser.
· Yahoo Sports
Among the lessons Jon Rahm ought to have learned at the age of 31 is that cemeteries are full of indispensable men, but we’ll find out in the coming days and weeks if he’s absorbed that truth, or whether his decision-making remains driven by a combustible combination of pride and ego.
Last week, Rahm withdrew his appeal against fines imposed by the DP World Tour after he broke its regulations by competing in LIV tournaments without the required approvals. Those sanctions were assessed against all members of the European Tour who signed with the Saudi-funded league, and have been upheld as fair and proportionate by the U.K. legal system. LIV covered the fines through 2025, but will no longer do so. With players facing paying their own, the DP World Tour offered a deal: no more financial penalties if guys commit to six tournaments on its schedule — the minimum four required for membership, chosen by each player, and two additional events selected by the Tour.
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It was a soft sanction, so eight Europeans playing on LIV accepted the settlement. Only Rahm rejected it, comparing the terms to extortion. In recent days, he’s continued to insist that the punishment is unjustified, despite him working for a hostile league actively trying to undermine the DP World Tour by soliciting sponsors and venues.
“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,” Rahm said in South Africa. “But I don’t feel like I’m asking for too much.”
He has staked out a position that’s staggering in its obstinacy and obtuseness. The DP World Tour doesn’t actually have any decision to make. It only has one option. Rahm has three, two of which he’s said are unpalatable.
With the Spaniard having withdrawn his legal petition but not paid his fines, the DP World Tour will inevitably have to follow procedures and deem his membership officially suspended, meaning he can’t play on the circuit or compete in the 2027 Ryder Cup (he was able to play in 2025 only because his appeal was ongoing). The choice Rahm makes will indicate if he’s coming to his senses or embarking on a foolish game of brinksmanship.
He can accept the same conditional settlement terms as his eight colleagues, he can pay the accumulating fines and continue to compete in the four events required for membership, or he can remain suspended. Unless he performs an about-face on his public statements, the third option is all he’s leaving open to himself.
It’s possible that Rahm and the coat-holders around him believe brinksmanship is the smart strategy. That the idea of Europe riding into Ryder Cup battle without him is so laughable that his teammates and captain will force the DP World Tour to engineer a solution on his terms, and that Spanish sponsors will threaten to exit in solidarity. It would be a losing bet, though not the first he’d have made through hubris.
Even if Rahm imagines rules are being unfairly applied to punish him, they exist to protect all Tour members and won’t be waived to humor him. And there’s no sign of support from his Ryder Cup teammates. Quite the opposite, in fact.
“It’s a really generous deal. Like, it's a much softer deal than what Brooks [Koepka] took to come back and play on the PGA Tour,” Rory McIlroy said of the terms Rahm rejected. “The European Tour can only do so much to accommodate these guys. If you want to play on the Ryder Cup you have to be a member of the DP World Tour, you have to abide by the rules and regulations.”
Justin Rose sounded a similar tone: “Eight did it and Jon didn’t. There's pretty decent precedent that the deal wasn't outrageous that they were proposing.”
If Rahm expected an encouraging response from Luke Donald’s locker room, he’ll be disappointed. Support for his position is non-existent outside of the feverish victim culture perpetuated by LIV’s bootlickers.
In an ideal world, Rahm will reconsider and accept what are favorable sanctions. But there’s prior evidence that he considers himself indispensable, convinced the mere fear of his absence will make others bend to his wishes. When he jumped to LIV in December 2023 — six months after the announcement of the Framework Agreement that hinted at a possible rapprochement between the PGA Tour and the Saudis — Rahm believed he would be a catalyst for rapid reunification. "I understood my position. And I understood that it could be, what I hoped, a step towards some kind of agreement,” he stated. "It would be something that would help expedite that process.”
If anything, it had the opposite effect. It hardened sentiment against a final deal because PGA Tour members refused to countenance allowing a smug Rahm to return to the locker room, pockets stuffed, to posture as a hero. So, more than two years later, he remains stuck for the foreseeable future, playing alongside washed-up whiners in a product that has all the mass market appeal of a herpes popsicle.
The two options that provide Rahm a path forward — accept the same deal as his peers or pay the fines — both require a public climb-down from a prideful man. But it’s not like he hasn’t previously completely reversed himself on a stand he insisted was a matter of principle. What’s one more? Rahm can’t continue blustering like a man with a pair of aces when everyone can see he’s holding two-seven off suit, and his bluff is being called.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Lynch: Is Jon Rahm coming to his senses or pushing to the brink? One move is a guaranteed loser.