It is golf’s equivalent of blasphemy to suggest that anybody should be paid to play in a Ryder Cup. As the theory rumbled around the US camp during their defeat against Europe in Rome last year, the tutting and tittering was audible.
The biennial clash became a play thing for the corporate classes long ago. It generates tens of millions for the European Tour Group and the PGA of America. But pay participants? The mere discussion is viewed as offensive. It is about the pride, the passion, the novelty of team golf at elite level. Most of these lads wouldn’t you-know-what on each other were they on fire from week to week, but the Ryder Cup forges bonds. Or so we are told.
Weirdly, it seems absolutely fine to pay to play in the Ryder Cup. If matters play out the way the European side seem to want them to, that’s precisely what Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton will have to do if they want to tee off at Bethpage next September. “Ryder Cup entry? £500,000 please chaps.” The number is plucked from the sky; the concept most certainly is not.
Long story short: Rahm and Hatton switched to LIV Golf for the 2024 season, which immediately raised questions over their Ryder Cup eligibility. “No problem,” declared Guy Kinnings, the European Tour Group’s recently installed chief executive. “The reality is, under the current rules, if a player is European, a member of the DP World Tour and abides by the rules – if you don’t get a release there are sanctions and you take those penalties – there is no reason why players who have taken LIV membership could not qualify or be available for selection,” Kinnings said.
The “release” is what Rahm, Hatton and other DP World Tour members request as permission to play in LIV events. These are declined, meaning fines and suspensions are applied each time the golfers tee up on the Saudi Arabian-backed tour. This is quite the money spinner for the European Tour Group.
Rumblings around the LIV campfire are that Rahm and Hatton are not particularly amused by this business – which it is, literally – of paying their way to Bethpage or, to be precise, have someone pay this ransom demand on their behalf. It is not particularly aligned with the holy ethics that are supposed to underpin the Ryder Cup. It is, however, strange that neither player – who are not typically backwards in coming forwards – has articulated their disquiet. LIV has the money – the organisation has already dished out millions in fines – but anybody in the shoes of Rahm or Hatton must surely believe it can be put to better use. Crucially, the Ryder Cup needs them more than vice versa.