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Two-time major winner and LIV Golf star Jon Rahm fired back at the DP World Tour this week, accusing the European sports body of “blackmailing” players by forcing them to play additional tournaments and pay fines for not getting releases to play in the rival Saudi-backed golf league.
Last month, the European Tour announced it had reached an agreement with eight LIV Golf pros that would allow them to continue playing on the rival tour without incurring additional fines for playing in events that took place in the same week as DP World Tour events.
Team Europe’s Jon Rahm hits his tee shot on the No. 1 hole during singles on the final day of Ryder Cup competition at Bethpage Black in Bethpage, New York, on September 28, 2025. (Brendan Mcdermid/Reuters via Imagn Images)
Rahm was not one of the eight.
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“I don’t like what they are doing at the moment with the contract they are making us sign,” he said, speaking to the media on Tuesday at the LIV Golf Hong Kong event. “I don’t like the conditions. They ask me to play a minimum of six events and they dictate where two of them should be, among other things that I don’t agree with.”
Rahm, winner of the 2023 Masters and 2021 US Open, claimed he never needed to be released from either the PGA Tour or the DP World Tour before joining LIV.
“I’ve been a dual member my whole career, the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour. Now that LIV Golf has been accepted into the world rankings as part of the ecosystem, you could almost say a member of three tours, even though I’m suspended from the PGA Tour. But I’ve always been a dual member. Never once have I been asked for a release to play one of these tours. Therefore, we never have to send one of these tours. to offer this and there are all these penalties?”
He continued: “I just don’t like the situation. I think we should be free to play where we want and have the choice to play where we want and not be dictated what we do. Especially myself. I can’t speak for anyone but myself.”
Jon Rahm of Spain waits to play on day four of the Open de España presented by Madrid 2025 at Club de Campo Villa de Madrid in Madrid, Spain on October 12, 2025. (Alvaro Medranda/Quality Sport Images/Getty Images)
Rahm said the minimum requirement for membership, which is four tournaments, is something he has always done and is committed to continuing. He said in response to the latest request from the European Tour that he would sign if they lowered the requirement to four, which he said they have not accepted.
“I don’t know what game they’re trying to play right now, but it just seems like they’re kind of using us to – they’re using our influence in tournaments and fining us and trying to take advantage both ways of what we have to offer, and it’s just kind of blackmailing players like myself and young players who have nothing to do with the situation in the game, and I don’t like that.
“I just refuse to play six events,” he later added. “I don’t want to, and that’s not what the rules say.”
Jon Rahm in action during the first round of play at LIV Golf Riyadh at Riyadh Golf Club in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on February 4, 2026. (Hamad I Mohammed/Reuters via Imagn Images)
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Despite the minimum requirement of four tournaments to maintain membership, the latest conflict puts Rahm’s participation in the 2027 Ryder Cup in jeopardy.
An arbitration panel in the UK, Sports Resolution, ruled in April 2023 that the tour had the right to punish players as a member organisation. If the panel rules in favor of the tour again, Rahm would be asked to settle his fines or lose his membership, which would keep him off the Ryder Cup team next year.
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