Jon Rahm withdraws DPWT sanctions appeal. But his stance hasn’t changed

JOHANNESBURG — While he competes this week in South Africa, Jon Rahm continues racking up suspensions and fines from the DP World Tour for competing in a “conflicting” LIV event.

The conflict? DP World Tour members, similarly to PGA Tour members, sign regulations at the beginning of each season, agreeing to not play in televised golf competitions in the same weeks as DPWT events — at least not without an approved release from the DPWT. Since the DPWT is conducting its Hainan Classic in China this week, LIV South Africa is deemed conflicting, even if, as Rahm has pointed out numerous times, he would not have considered playing in China anyway. 

While that may be old news — Rahm has received this treatment for years — what’s changed is he is no longer appealing the sanctions, the DPWT has confirmed to GOLF.com. On March 10, Rahm officially withdrew his 18-month appeal but clarified to the DPWT that he has no interest in paying his fines, which have grown north of $3 million. 

The appeal, which had dragged on without meaningful progress, allowed Rahm to enter DPWT events for the last 18 months without issue, as well as compete in the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black. While the appeal existed, Rahm remained (technically, at least) a member in good standing with the tour. The Euros won an away Ryder Cup, Rahm contributed immensely and then he had one of the best-ever off-seasons. But now, at the outset of the major championship season, the impasse continues, and amid different circumstances. 

In late February, the DPWT announced eight LIV players had signed conditional releases that would keep them from receiving sanctions for playing LIV events. It was an olive branch of sorts, offered for the first time, and not necessarily precedent-setting. Something changes every few months in the golf world. This deal was just for 2026, and each player’s release included different stipulations. These eight would have to play a greater minimum number of events this season — between six and eight non-major tournaments — to maintain membership. The minimum for non-LIV members is four non-majors. They also would have to play specific events outlined by the DPWT and settle up any unpaid fines. Rahm took issue with the offer for multiple reasons — particularly that he would have to play six non-majors, boosting his yearly total to 24 starts — and spoke out about it at a press conference two weeks ago. 

“I don’t know what game they’re trying to play right now,” Rahm said, “but it just seems like in a way [the DPWT is] using us to — they’re using our impact in tournaments and fining us and trying to benefit both ways from what we have to offer. It’s just, in a way they’re extorting players like myself and young players that have nothing to do with the politics of the game.

“So I don’t like the situation and I’m not going to agree to that.”

By young players, Rahm means the likes of Tom McKibbon, David Puig and Elvis Smylie, all three of whom are now expected to make trips to India this year to make good on their releases. Smylie, in the last three weeks, has followed the LIV track from Hong Kong to Singapore to South Africa. He’ll now double back for the DPWT’s Hero Indian Open next week in New Delhi. 

A handful of specific DPWT events are expected to benefit from the presence of LIV golfers. The Turkish Airlines Open, for example, in late April, should see a few LIV players squeeze in part of their commitments in eastern Europe before flying to Washington D.C. for their next LIV event. The Soudal Open, in Belgium, should see a few LIV players on its tee sheets as well, though the event is the week after the PGA Championship and week before LIV plays in Korea. For those who agreed to conditional releases, the schedule fills up quickly.

Importantly, in April 2023 — before Rahm was even a LIV golfer — the DPWT won an arbitration ruling on a similar sanctions appeal by Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood and a handful of others. It was legally decreed that the sanctions were reasonable for the tour to maintain its business as a membership organization. And while the regulations haven’t changed in the three years since, the landscape of the golf world has. The warring tours seemingly came together for a Framework Agreement, in June 2023, but a deal never materialized. LIV Golf events now receive world ranking points for their top-10 finishers, which wasn’t the case three years ago. Major championships have created new exemptions in recent years for top performing LIV players, which also was not the case three years ago.

One side of the argument is that — given the shifted structures of pro golf — the DPWT should be more willing to grant releases for LIV golfers during conflicting weeks without needing to ask for more in return. For months it seemed that argument would be tested in court, but that’s no longer the case. On March 4, DPWT CEO Guy Kinnings said Rahm had two options: see the appeal through or make good on the sanctions. On March 10, the appeal was withdrawn, but Rahm has refused to budge on fines.

“As you can imagine, all we are looking to do is do what’s best for the Tour as a whole, for the membership as a whole, and the arrangements we have struck will support the Tour,” Kinnings said. “It will help improve the product, and that will lead to happier promotors, sponsors, broadcasters. It’s our job to deal with those rules that are in place and have been tested and proven to be fair, and that’s what we’re doing.”

One reason — and undoubtedly the biggest one — that maintaining good standing with the DPWT is important is because 2027 is a Ryder Cup year. To compete on behalf of Ryder Cup Europe next fall in Ireland, players need to be active members of the DP World Tour this year, compete in the minimum number of events and resolve outstanding fines. The Ryder Cup is a significant leverage point for the DPWT. The Cup is a massive piece of the tour’s financial sustenance — so much that the tour might struggle to exist without it — so it naturally is a major part of the discussion surrounding any LIV golfers who dare to miss it.  

Rahm has not wavered on his stance. He wants to be a DPWT member and he wants to play the normal minimum of events. He simply doesn’t believe he should receive sanctions for events he wouldn’t have considered competing in anyway, and doesn’t want to see his minimum commitment raised beyond, say, Rory McIlroy’s or Tommy Fleetwood’s. The DPWT, on the other hand, is simply trying to uphold the regulations to which all of its members agree. Somewhere in the middle is a pathway that some LIV players have found suitable, just not all of them. 

Lost in the shuffle of the late-February announcement, Rahm is not the only LIV golfer who declined these conditional releases. South Africans Branden Grace and Dean Burmester both entered discussions with the DPWT while they were members earlier this year, but both declined the conditional releases and ultimately resigned their memberships. (They are not eligible for the Ryder Cup as they are not European.)

Rahm has not resigned his membership, which pulls us all into a bit of a time machine, back to September 2024, right before he filed the appeal. Rahm was accumulating fines and suspensions all throughout that summer, and it was looking like the DPWT would not allow him to play the Spanish Open, in his homeland, that fall.

Rahm has played the Spanish Open every year since he turned pro, winning ir three times. He considers it his “duty” to return to his home open. He’s hopeful to play it again this fall, among three other DPWT events in September and October: the Amgen Irish Open, the BMW PGA Championship and the Dunhill Links Championship.

In a world without sanctions, Rahm would hit his four-event (non-majors) minimum for membership, like he’s done the last two years, and cruise into 2027 as a likely member of Ryder Cup Europe. But that is not the current reality of the golf world. Rahm understands this. He’s aware that standing his ground may prohibit him from playing on Luke Donald’s Ryder Cup team next fall, and he has grown comfortable with it. He’s fully aware that Spanish golf legend Seve Ballesteros once sat out a Ryder Cup via a dispute with the DPWT. To avoid that, Rahm sees a path forward, but it does not include him playing extra events.

“I did tell [the DPWT], funny enough, lower [my minimum] to four events, like the minimum says, and I’ll sign tonight,” Rahm said earlier this month. “They haven’t agreed to that. I just refuse to play six events. I don’t want to, and that’s not what the rules say.”

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