This promises to be an interesting, and quite possibly lucrative week, for Jon Rahm. Some nine months after sending a huge jolt through the game by signing with LIV Golf, Rahm is in position to alter the narrative on what has been a somewhat jumbled golf season while also giving an indication as to his Ryder Cup plans.
Despite the suggestion that has often seen Rahm’s 2024 season portrayed as disappointing—largely due to his lack of success in the major championships—Rahm is in position to win LIV Golf’s individual title this week outside Chicago.
Only Joaquin Niemann can deny Rahm the overall crown, which comes with an $18 million bonus, as the LIV Golf Chicago event is the last of 13 individual tournaments, with the league’s Team Championship to follow a week later.
For all the talk about Rahm’s poor year, he leads LIV’s points race, has not finished out of the top 10 in any of the 11 events he’s played (he withdrew from one due to the foot infection that also kept him out of the U.S. Open), including a victory and a playoff loss. He has four other top-3 finishes. And the Legion XIII team he captains has four victories in 12 tournaments.
Rahm finished 45th in his Masters defense, missed the cut at the PGA Championship and then withdrew from the U.S. Open due to the foot infection. He rebounded to tie for ninth at the British Open, was in contention for a medal at the Olympics, and recently lost a playoff to Brooks Koepka at the LIV Golf Greenbrier event.
Rahm leads Niemann—who has two victories this year—by just three points, with only players finishing among the top 24 earning them and 40 points going to the winner. The second-place finisher earns a $7 million bonus with $3 million going to third place.
The money quest will be preceded by a decision that Rahm needs to make by Thursday. That is the deadline for entry into the Spanish Open, to be played Sept. 26-29 in Madrid. It matters because, in all likelihood, Rahm needs to play that DP World Tour event in order to be eligible for the 2025 Ryder Cup.
As the Telegraph noted last week in a story about Rahm, there is no getting around the four-event requirement for membership, the minimum needed for captain Luke Donald to consider him as an at-large pick next year.
The possibility of making the team on points is remote given that Rahm will not be playing in any of the PGA Tour events offering Ryder Cup points to European players, and only a small number of DP World Tour events, if at all.
At issue is the fines and suspensions that are in play. Tyrrell Hatton, who faces the same penalties, has appealed his sanctions, which effectively allowed him to play at last week’s British Masters. Having played in Dubai earlier this year, Hatton needs just two more events.
Rahm needs three with the Olympics having counted but he’ll miss this week’s Irish Open and next week’s BMW PGA Championship due to his LIV commitments.
Although the DP World Tour won a UK arbitration case in April 2023 which effectively rules that the tour is within its right to enforce its conflicting events rules via suspensions and fines, it has worked with players who want to compete in DP World Tour events.
The Telegraph story said that the DP World Tour would not be altering its rules for Rahm, who earlier this year at the British Open said his representatives were discussing the situation with tour officials.
“I’ve had many conversations with Jon,” European Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald said at the British Masters. “He absolutely knows what the deal is. He knew when he signed for LIV what the policies were on the DP World Tour. You have to play your four. Per all the policies, he can pay the fines or he can appeal like some of the guys have, and that gives him the opportunity to do that.
“It’s really up to him to do that and become eligible. He certainly mentioned at the PGA Championship he was willing to do whatever it took to commit to me and the team. I hope that happens.”
Rahm’s wife, Kelley, is pregnant with the couple’s third child, further complicating matters. After being on the road the next two weeks, it’s quite possible he doesn’t want to spend considerable time in Europe. He could also add the Dunhill Links Championship, the French Open plus another event in Spain, all upcoming tournaments in October.
“The guys on LIV do get the opportunity to represent Europe,” Justin Rose told SkySports last week. “It think there is a structure in place, the European (DP World) Tour has its rules and regulations, if they play in a conflicting event, they accrue a fine and if they pay the fine, they're eligible to play. So I think there is a fair pathway for everybody to be part of the team.”
After signing for huge money with LIV last year, Rahm certainly has the wherewithal to endure fines, no matter how prohibitive. And he’s got a chance to add to spending money this week with another opportunity through the LIV Golf event.
Toughest venues
It’s no surprise that three of the major championship venues ranked as the toughest courses on the PGA Tour in 2024, led by Pinehurst No. 2 and the U.S. Open, which played to an average of 2.891 strokes over its par-70 throughout the tournament.
Royal Troon for the British Open (2.851 strokes over par) was next followed by Augusta National for the Masters (1.906). Muirfield Village, home of the Memorial Tournament and where Scottie Scheffler won, was fourth hardest (1.504) and perhaps a surprise at No. 5 is Colonial Country Club, home of the Charles Schwab Challenge, a relatively short course that came in at +0.824.
Rounding out the top 10 were Quail Hollow (Wells Fargo), TPC San Antonio (Valero Texas Open), Innisbrook Copperhead (Valspar), Torrey Pines South (Farmers) and Bay Hill (Arnold Palmer). Valhalla, site of the PGA Championship, was 13th and the first course on the list that averaged under par at -0.426. TPC Sawgrass was 14th.
Furyk's dilemma
The fact that U.S. Presidents Cup captain Jim Furyk went straight down the points list in making his six at-large selections likely says a lot about the fact that there was really nobody outside of the top 12 who made an overwhelming, compelling argument to get a pick for the team that plays later this month against an International squad at Royal Montreal.
Both Brian Harman and Max Homa, who had shaky summers and didn’t make it to the Tour Championship, might have been bypassed had there been a more obvious candidate. Billy Horschel and Justin Thomas were among those who had an argument, but in the end, it wasn’t compelling enough.
Nick Dunlap, who had less than a year to try and qualify and won twice in 2024, including as an amateur, is another player Furyk might have considered had he wanted to go outside the box.
Thomas got the most scrutiny, even in light of all the negatively from a year ago in which he was a pick of Zach Johnson but—like just about the entire U.S. team—fared poorly in the U.S. defeat in Rome. (Homa, it should be said, was the best U.S. player at 3–1–1 and also had a strong Presidents Cup two years ago.)
Having played on five U.S. teams and gone 17–7–4, Thomas certainly had an argument. At age 31, you figure him to be part of U.S. teams in the future. Taking a chance on one of America’s most passionate players certainly was within reason.
But, of course, there was the backdrop of the Ryder Cup, the noise about the “Boys Club” and the picks of Thomas, Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler, and if that, perhaps, weighed on Furyk at all as he made his choices. Thomas went 1–2–1 last year as the U.S. was trounced. Only Homa had a winning record for the Americans.
“No, I didn’t make picks off of popularity,” Furyk said. “I didn’t make picks off of how it would be perceived in the media because ultimately it matters what the 12 guys inside feel, and definitely JT would be a great addition to this team, there’s no doubt about it. He’s got a great record. He’s an emotional guy, a feisty guy, a leader. He definitely would have been a good pick. But it has nothing to do with optics.”
Spieth's wrist injury and surgery
Jordan Spieth told SiriusXM PGA Tour radio last week in the aftermath of his left wrist surgery that the dislocation occurred “20-some-odd times since February” and that the tendon would pop out and he’d need to put it back in place. Sometimes just prior to a tee time.
Spieth didn’t have a top-10 finish after April and while he never used the injury as an excuse, he wondered it was something that was causing him to alter his swing to compensate. He had surgery soon after the FedEx St. Jude Championship in Memphis and was told it would be 12 weeks before he could swing a club, putting his return likely sometime in January.
“I don’t know exactly how long it will take to be game-ready from there,” he said during the radio interview. “I don’t know if that’s two weeks and you feel good or if it’s two months and you feel good, but should be plenty fine by the new year. I just don’t know if I’d be able to play any of the kind of events in December as tune-ups or anything. That seems like a stretch right now.”
And a few more things ...
> This week’s Procore Championship on the PGA Tour in Napa, Calif., is the first of eight events that are billed the “FedEx Cup Fall” and offer an opportunity for players to secure their PGA Tour cards for 2025, earn their way into signature events and qualify for various events by winning. Players keep their FedEx points from where they stood through the BMW Championship and anyone finishing 51st to 60th in the final standings after the RSM Classic will be able to play their way into two signature events following the Sentry. It is also the place for those hovering around the 125th spot in the points to retain or gain exempt status for the year.
> Ludvig Aberg was scheduled to have surgery for a torn meniscus in his left knee, an issue he dealt with for months, according to Golf Channel. The recuperation time is expected to be a month.
> Among the numerous stats that Scottie Scheffler led the PGA Tour in during the 2024 season were wins (seven), top 10s (16), adjusted scoring average (68.645) as well as strokes-gained total, strokes-gained tee to green and strokes-gained approach to the green.
> Matthieu Pavon, who gained his PGA Tour card for 2024 via the DP World Tour’s top 10 in 2023, made the most of it. He won the Farmers Insurance Open and finished with more than $5.2 million in earnings.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Jon Rahm Can Win a LIV Golf Title This Week, But Ryder Cup Status Still in Question.
