Jon Rahm Withdraws Appeal Against DP World Tour, Leaving Ryder Cup Future in Doubt

Rahm was appealing a series of fines the DP World Tour assessed for playing LIV Golf events. With his appeal dropped, Rahm still expressed no interest in paying his fines, making his Ryder Cup future murky, writes Bob Harig.

Rahm was a key part of Europe’s winning Ryder Cup team in September. | Peter Casey-Imagn Images

Jon Rahm has dropped his appeal of fines that DP World Tour has been assessing him since he joined the LIV Golf League—but the two-time major champion told the tour he would not pay the outstanding fines.

That means the  Spanish golfer who recently won LIV Golf’s event in Hong Kong will not be able to compete in DP World Tour events, won’t retain his membership and is thus is putting his participation in the 2027 Ryder Cup in doubt.

Golf.com first reported that Rahm dropped his appeal on March 10. The DP World Tour confirmed to Sports Illustrated on Friday that Rahm dropped his appeals but is required to settle any outstanding fines before he can play an event. The appeal has allowed him to play since he first submitted it in September of 2024.

On Feb. 21, the DP World Tour announced that it had made a deal with eight LIV golfers to waive their need for conflicting events releases and thus would not be fined going forward. In return the players dropped their appeals and agreed to play the four-event Tour minimum plus two extra events at the tour’s choosing. The eight players are Tyrrell Hatton, Laurie Canter, Thomas Detry, Tom McKibbin, Adrian Meronk, Victor Perez, David Puig and Elvis Smylie.

Rahm did not agree to the deal and balked at the stipulations.

“I did tell them, funny enough, lower that to four events, like the minimum says, and I'll sign tonight,” Rahm said at a news conference in Hong Kong two weeks ago. “They haven't agreed to that. I just refuse to play six events. I don't want to, and that's not what the rules say.”

The extra events are a trade-off for the tour waiving its rules concerning releases.

Every time a player on the DP World Tour plays outside of the Tour in a conflicting event that is televised—similar to rules on the PGA Tour—a release is required. It is typically standard, but not for LIV tournaments because LIV golfers have no choice but to compete in that tour’s 14 events. The DP World Tour is not granting such releases, and thus fines its players for missing tournaments.

Rahm has maintained that he believes it is wrong to be sanctioned for missing tournaments he would have never played anyway—such as this week’s DP World Tour event in China. Nonetheless, those rules have been in play the entire time. In fact, in April of 2023, a UK arbitration panel ruled in the DP World Tour’s favor, saying it was within its rights to fine and suspend players who violated the conflicting-events rules.

That ruling took place before Rahm joined LIV Golf. He and others, including Hatton, were allowed to appeal their fines. Rahm’s are said to be approaching $3 million, and LIV Golf would have paid them through 2025. Players were able to maintain DP World Tour membership while the appeals process played out. Both Rahm and Hatton competed for Europe during the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black and formed a formidable pairing during the team sessions.

Rahm and Hatton are unbeaten as a team in Ryder Cup competition. | Brendan Mcdermid-Reuters via Imagn Images

Rahm would easily meet the tour minimum of four events by competing in tournaments such as the Spanish Open, the Irish Open, the BMW Championship and perhaps the Dunhill Links Championship. Last year, despite being eligible, he skipped the DP World Tour’s season-ending playoff events in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

The standoff now boils down to those extra events and the outstanding fines.

Two weeks ago at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, Rahm’s Ryder Cup teammate Rory McIlroy sided with the DP World Tour in the dispute.

“The European Tour can only do so much to accommodate these guys,” McIlroy said. “So, 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. And the rules and regulations were, O.K., if you break the media rights agreement and you go and play in a conflicting event, you don't get a release, you're subject to fines. So the guys didn't want to pay these fines, that's fine.

“So then the European Tour said, O.K., let's try to come up with some sort of solution where you don't have to pay the fines, so that we can ease that burden on you, but still retain your membership.

“There's a reason eight of the nine guys took that deal, right. I think it's a really good deal. Yeah, obviously Jon doesn't think so, and he's obviously well within his rights to think that way. But I just don't see what more the European Tour can do to accommodate these guys to retain their membership.”

Before Rahm dropped his appeal, DP World Tour CEO Guy Kinnings said the deal was meant to try and appease all parties: “As you can imagine, all we are looking to do is do what’s best for the Tour as a whole, for the membership as a whole, and the arrangements we have struck will support the Tour,” Kinnings said. “It will help improve the product, and that will lead to happier promotors, sponsors, broadcasters. It’s our job to deal with those rules that are in place and have been tested and proven to be fair, and that’s what we’re doing.”

---