“Yes, that’s right, I have received some emails”. In this way, Jon Rahm confirmed this Tuesday to Ten Golf at the Valhalla Golf Club, on the eve of the PGA Championship, that the DP World Tour has already communicated the sanctions imposed on him for playing LIV Golf tournaments in the same weeks where there were DP World Tour tournaments without the pertinent permission. Jon remains firm in his purpose to do whatever is necessary to continue being a member of the European Circuit and is in favour of paying the fines, but he has an objection to make and announces a negotiation.
According to what this medium has been able to know, the fines amount to 75,000 euros for each week of conflict. At the moment, there are six LIV Golf tournaments that have coincided with other dates of the DP World Tour, so the total amount of the punishment to date amounts to 450,000 euros, a figure that will obviously increase as the year progresses.
Well, Jon’s objection is that he considers it unfair to be fined for his absence in tournaments that he had never played before. This is the case of these first six dates of the DP World Tour calendar. To know: Bahrain coincided with Mayakoba, Qatar with Las Vegas, SDC Championship with Jeddah, Jonsson Workwear Open with Hong Kong, Japan with Australia and China with Singapore.
Rahm argues in his defence that he never played those DP World Tour tournaments before, so there can be no talk of damage to the circuit. He does not understand that before they did not put any problem when he played in the PGA Tour and coincided with DP World Tour tournaments and now yes because he is in LIV. He considers it an aggravation and that is going to be the line of his defence.
At the moment, there have been no conversations between Rahm and his environment and the DP World Tour, but the golfer from Barrika announces that they will have to sit down and talk. That is to say, in plain language: the idea is to establish a negotiation to agree on a figure in which everyone is, if not comfortable, at least in agreement. This will happen in the coming weeks and we will see what the outcome is. Remember that, in addition to the fines, the punishment of the DP World Tour also includes weeks of suspension without playing tournaments of their circuit.
Obviously, here each party defends its interests. The DP World Tour understands that, until proven otherwise and an agreement is reached, LIV Golf is an enemy circuit that is causing significant damage to their interests, beyond of course that they also see it as a way to earn extra money, let’s not forget. With the PGA Tour, this situation was assumed because it was a logical growth of the players based on their direct merits on the golf course, while in the case of the Saudis there is only a great offer and a contract in between.
Be that as it may, Jon’s idea, defending what he believes is fair, is to reach an agreement. He has let his work team know this. He wants to continue being a member of the European Circuit, he wants to play tournaments from his calendar, he wants to compete in Spain and, of course, he wants to continue being part of the Ryder Cup. Needless to say, the DP World Tour is also interested in the same as Jon, that he plays in Europe, that he plays in Spain and that he is in the Ryder, so it seems a situation in which the two parties are condemned to understand each other. However, although they are not identical cases, let’s not forget that with Sergio García a negotiation was also attempted and no agreement was possible.
