On the eve of the Amgen Irish Open at Royal County Down, the duo of Irish major winners Shane Lowry and Padraig Harrington were in agreeance that the rules can’t be bent for Jon Rahm to qualify for next year’s Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black.
“Do I want Jon Rahm on the Ryder Cup Team? Yes,” said Lowry. “You know, should he be allowed break the rules and make the Ryder Cup Team? Should there be exceptions made? I’m not sure. That’s not for me to decide.”
Rahm, like any other European LIV player, just has to pay his fines and play in the four DP World Tour events needed to retain their membership and then they will be in the qualification rankings system. If the player doesn’t gain enough points to qualify, then they will have to rely on a captains pick from skipper Luke Donald.
One of these events for Rahm includes the Spanish Open in two week’s time, which he has yet to confirm his attendance.
“I’m not a big fan of the fines,” said Rahm from LIV Golf Chicago. “I think I’ve been outspoken about that. I don’t intend to pay the fines, and we keep trying to have a discussion with them (DP World Tour) about how we can make this happen.
Harrington, who is playing in his 29thconsecutive Irish Open this week, agreed with his countryman in being a stickler for rules and that the DP World Tour has to stand firm on the qualification process.
“We had this situation back in my day where players were playing on the U.S. Tour, where they had to come back and play enough events — dispensations and exemptions,” said Harrington. “If anybody knows me, I’m a stickler for the rules. You know what the rules say and you stick to them.
“I know Jon Rahm. Big fan of Jon. And if the rules are written down, you’ve got to go about and stick to them. That’s just the way it is. It’s very important for the Ryder Cup — the Ryder Cup is bigger than just the match.
“I know people want to make out that it’s this one match every two years, but the Ryder Cup is The European Tour. It is the backbone of The European Tour. I would have been a strong advocate of stronger rules in the past of four events is not a lot.
“And I know the independent, the neutral would say, you know, it should be just European-born players against U.S.-born players, but it’s very important to the European Tour. The European Tour doesn’t have a lot of leverage to get players to come across and play here.
The Americans will try to win the Cup for the first time since 2017, when Obama became a member at this year’s host course.
The golf-enthused past president has spent time with multiple Solheim Cup teams over the years. Early in his first term, Obama hosted the winning 2009 U.S. Solheim team at the White House in 2010. During his second term, Obama was the last president to have a winning American Solheim Cup team visit the White House when the 2015 squad, which included Lexi Thompson and Alison Lee on this year’s roster, celebrated their 14½ to 13½ win in Germany. U.S. captain Stacy Lewis was a player on that team too. It was the last time the U.S. won in Europe.