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.”

Patrick Smith

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.

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Harrington, who is playing in his 29th consecutive 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.

Sergio Garcia, Paul Casey, Padraig Harrington and Luke Donald celebrate with the Ryder Cup trophy after beating the Americans in the 2006 matches in Ireland. David Cannon

“When I started off, half the best players in the world played on The European Tour. You go back and look at the top 10 in the world, the names that were up there were playing The European Tour. Now even our best Europeans start their life with the PGA TOUR and so they don’t have that affinity.

“But when I started off, like Ernie (Els) would have come through Europe first and he always came tack. Retief (Goosen) came through Europe first, he always came back, Adam spot. They had an affinity to come back to Europe.

“Whereas if you go to college straight to the PGA TOUR, you don’t know the European Tour. You don’t have that draw back to it, and you know, the Ryder Cup is the carrot that we use to get people to come back, and when you do, you see guys come, like last year, they come, they play well and they enjoy the experience and that will get them coming back in future years.

“It is a very tough situation for the European Tour. It is a very tough situation for Luke Donald and The Ryder Cup in the sense of they really do want to have the best team and there is a case for saying, you know, give ourselves the best chance of winning, that’s as important a factor as anything in be keeping the European Tour at the forefront of golf.

“But at the moment if they want to change the rules, change the rules. I’ve always been a stickler for the rules. I’ve seen this leverage before and I wasn’t happy about it back in the day. I know there was a few — yeah. I’m a guy for sticking to the rules but it putts us in an awkward situation because in 12 months’ time I will actually want Jon Rahm playing in the match.

“But the 12th guy who qualifies, sticking to the rules or gets bumped out, he’s not going to be happy if somebody else has not stuck to the rules. We can’t forget that person, either.”

Main Image: Andrew Redington