Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton helped Europe dominate Team USA at Marco Simone Golf Club. Photo: Getty Images/Ross Kinnaird
“That's it, buddy.” One had to admire the brevity with which Sir Nick Faldo formulated one of golf's most intractable mysteries. Once asked whether Europe's LIV rebels should ever represent the continent at the Ryder Cup again, the veteran of 11 such events replied: “The point is, they knew what they were doing. They wanted to take the money and run away. That's it, they're done. You can't leave a company, go and work for a competitor, and two years later say, “Well, I'll come back.”
But that's exactly the proposal as we approach the second anniversary of the LIV outbreak in the game. The original defectors may have burned their bridges, with Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood and Sergio Garcia resigning from the DP World Tour, but the way back has already been paved for the duo who followed them. Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton, who earned around £500 million for quitting the tour, will learn they are still eligible for next year's Ryder Cup if they play in at least four events and pay out £1 million. ok, this is nothing more than a small thing.
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The loophole leaves a sour taste. Forget the question of whether these two would be even remotely strong enough for a match with Bethpage Black after another 17 months of lounging around in their Bermuda shorts. Instead, consider the message that delaying them sends. Rahm and Hatton are involved in a project that continues to cause enormous damage to professional golf, weakening governing bodies, lowering television ratings and uniting fans only in disgust at the absurd amounts of money spent on it. And what is the punishment for their selfishness? Want to be welcomed back to the Ryder Cup, an event that serves as the perfect showcase for the major tours? This is as absurd as it is depressing.
From all sides, golf seems to have shelved the idea of adhering to unwavering principles. Take Rory McIlroy, for example. For the better part of two years he was a rare voice of conscience, until he developed the unfortunate politician's habit of throwing himself into the wind. While passing up few chances to criticize the LIV team, he was adamant that they should be kept away from the Ryder Cup and even enjoyed his exile in Rome when he declared: “They'll miss them here more than we will miss them.”
What changed his thinking was Ram's dramatic transition two months later. The absence of Poulter, Westwood and others could be passed off as a tolerable cost of golf's great schism, given their ages, even if it would deprive Europe of several future captains. But the Spaniard's inaction threatened to cut the team to the bone. This was the Masters champion and former world number one, not to mention talisman Marco Simone. In other words, it is a force that Europe could not afford to do without. And just as suddenly as McIlroy became the anti-LIV spokesman, he softened his stance, calling for rapprochement.
“John will be in Bethpage in 2025,” he said somewhat cockily last December. “The Tour will have to rewrite the rules of the Ryder Cup, there's no doubt about it. I definitely want John on the next team.”
It felt like McIlroy was presenting this as a fait accompli, as if the tour would naturally veer toward the “whatever Rory wants, Rory gets” policy. In the end, a rewrite was avoided, and the return of Rahm and Hutton was confirmed as permissible under existing rules.
But what a terrible invention this is. Look at it this way: every time Ram competes under the LIV banner, he is suspended from the next DP World Tour event. But this is a sanction without sufficient teeth. Later this season he will be able to play four symbolic matches and pay a seven-figure fine without blinking an eye. This is a mockery of the system when a person who has enriched himself beyond measure, turning away from the tour, can return to formalities. Faldo is right when he argues that in golf you have to draw the line somewhere. Unfortunately, he doesn't have the courage to do this.
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