Rory McIlroy Says LIV Golf Stars Should Pay Their Fines to DP World Tour

Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton are said to owe more than $1 million to the DP World Tour, and Ryder Cup teammate Rory McIlroy says they should settle up.

Rory McIlroy (right, with Jon Rahm at the 2023 Tour Championship), said Rahm and fellow LIV Golf player Tyrrell Hatton should pay their accumulated fines to the DP World Tour. | Adam Hagy-Imagn Images

Rory McIlroy has called on two of his European Ryder Cup teammates who went to LIV Golf to pay their fines to the DP World Tour that have been levied due to competing in conflicting LIV Golf League events over the past two-plus years.

Both Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton are said to owe well in excess of $1 million in fines levied by the circuit, which has allowed them both to play while the fines are under appeal.

But McIlroy, speaking to reporters in Dubai in advance of the Hero Dubai Desert Classic, said a European rallying cry in play in September at Bethpage is part of his reasoning.

He cited the U.S. players getting paid a $500,000 stipend (with $300,000 earmarked for charity) while the Europeans were not compensated.

“Look, this is my opinion,” McIlroy said. “We went really hard on the Americans about being paid to play the Ryder Cup, and we also said that we would pay to play in Ryder Cups. There's two guys that can prove it. Great.”

Rahm and Hatton’s appeal has languished for nearly 18 months with no indication when it will be heard.

In April 2023, the DP World Tour was ruled by a U.K. arbitration panel to be within its rights to assess fines and suspensions to players who violated its conflicting-events agreements. The tour has an undisclosed fine and suspension system based on the events missed and where they are played.

LIV Golf had been paying fines for members until the start of this year.

Rahm has maintained, as a matter of principle, that he will not pay them nor did he want LIV Golf to pay them.

For now, he and Hatton—who is the defending champion in Dubai—are able to play DP World Tour events. But if they lose their appeal, then what? It has put both players’ future in the Ryder Cup in doubt because they are required to play a minimum of four events outside of the majors per year to maintain membership and be eligible.

Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton are, for now, still able to play in DP World Tour events. | Brendan Mcdermid-Reuters via Imagn Images

“I think any organization or any members’ organization like this has a right to uphold its rules and regulations,” McIlroy said. “And what the DP World Tour are doing is upholding their rules and regulations and we, as members, sign a document at the start of every year, which has you agree to these rules and regulations, and the people that made the option to go to LIV knew what they were.

“So I don’t see what’s wrong with that, I guess, is my opinion.”

McIlroy, the reigning Masters champion who is coming off a third-place tie at the Dubai Invitational, said he still wishes the two sides would come together, even though he believes it is nowhere close to happening.

“I don’t think it matters. I definitely think the additional tours, if you want to call them, have weathered the worst of the storm,” he said. “Again, my opinion is that golf would be better served if all the best players in the world played together a little more often than they do. You know, we’re really only seeing that four times a year at the major championships. But you’re talking about a handful of guys that are missing, say, a Players Championship or some of the other bigger tournaments in the world.

“So, yeah, I’d like to see the best players play together maybe 10 times a year instead of four times a year. But I would say that’s the only negative I see to something coming together.”