As Ryder Cup questions loom, Jon Rahm enters a crucial stage of his career
As Ryder Cup questions loom, Jon Rahm enters a crucial stage of his career
Jay BusbeeTue, April 7, 2026 at 4:08 PM UTC
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Jon Rahm is in the prime of his career. Can he capture another green jacket? (Andrew Redington/Getty Images) (Andrew Redington via Getty Images)
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Jon Rahm is thoughtful and deliberate. Jon Rahm is also fiery and prideful. He contains multitudes, and those multitudes right now are keeping him connected with LIV Golf, keeping his 2027 Ryder Cup status in limbo … and setting himself up for the most consequential major year of his career to date.
Rahm has spent the last two-plus years dominating LIV Golf. After jumping to the Saudi-backed breakaway tour in 2023, he won player of the year his first two years in the league, he’s finished outside the top 10 only once — carding a T11 — and he currently leads the league yet again this season. Clearly, the level of competition on the LIV Tour is not quite to the level of the PGA Tour … and yet, Rahm remains committed to LIV.
He has declined — perhaps pridefully, perhaps contractually — to follow the lead of Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed back to the PGA Tour. The DP World Tour? Well, that’s another matter.
Speaking on Tuesday morning prior to the Masters, and clearly uncomfortable with delving into anything that’s not the Masters, the 2023 Masters champion reaffirmed his stance on ongoing negotiations with the DP World Tour that have put his Ryder Cup status in jeopardy.
“I do intend to continue to support the DP World Tour,” Rahm said. “I've been very thankful to be a member. I've been very thankful to support the Tour and play some wonderful events.”
Still, gaps remain. Rahm and eight other DP World Tour players who also compete on the LIV Tour were offered a pathway back to get square and resume competing on both tours without penalty. The other eight players agreed to pay the remaining outstanding fines levied by the tour, but Rahm has continually declined to agree to the DP World Tour’s terms.
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The upshot: Until Rahm and the DP World Tour settle their differences, Rahm is not eligible to play in the Ryder Cup. That would be a catastrophic loss for Team Europe; Rahm has played in four Ryders, including three European victories. He ranks No. 15 on the all-time European points list with a record of 9-5-3. Along with Rory McIlroy, he is the heart and soul of the current European juggernaut.
Which means that, all current posturing aside, Rahm and the DP World Tour will figure out a way to work together, one way or another. Asked directly if he thought he’d be on the 2027 Ryder Cup team, Rahm chuckled — perhaps at the absurdity of the idea that he wouldn’t be — and said, simply, “Yes.”
“We're going to work it out. It's going to work out,” he added later. “As of now, the DP World Tour is doing what they need to do and following the channels they need to follow, but I'm confident this will be sorted out before I tee it up (on the DP World Tour) in September.”
Left unsaid: what lies in Rahm’s future beyond the Ryder Cup. Unlike Bryson DeChambeau, the other major international attraction on LIV Golf, Rahm’s contract doesn’t end after this season. He wouldn’t be able to exit LIV — if, in fact, he even wants to — without likely substantial financial penalties. Reed has to wait an entire year after his last LIV event before he’s able to play on the PGA Tour, but the PGA Tour created a special “pathway” back for Koepka, and would likely do the same for Rahm.
For now, given LIV’s ongoing struggles to capture a domestic United States audience, this week marks the first of Rahm’s four chances to recapture the golf world’s attention. He’s a trendy favorite, and if he’s able to stay in contention, or even claim a second green jacket, he’d silence many of the critics of his move to LIV.
Rahm is in the prime of his career, and by statistical measures, he’s still one of the finest players on the planet. The LIV triumphs are certainly profitable, but Rahm is enough of a student of golf history to know that legacy is built on majors. And his first opportunity to add to that legacy this year comes this week.
Source: “AOL Sports”
