Jon Rahm will almost certainly be at this year’s Ryder Cup in Rome, but the group that joins him on the European side for the biennial competition has never been more up in the air. It’s not just the Europeans, either, as the United States team is going to have some decisions to make when it comes to September’s event — particularly as it pertains to LIV Golf participants joining in on the festivities.
“There’s some people that are going to have to make some tough choices, right?” said Rahm on Tuesday at the Tournament of Champions where he will open his 2023 campaign. “A little bit of that is out of my reach. My guess is I hope the PGA of America and European Tour make a decision together. I don’t think it would be smart to have one team allowing LIV players and one not to.
“And besides that, even if they decide not to on that side, I think it’s going to give an opportunity for a lot of great young players to show up and have the chance in Europe, right? It’s just going to be an opportunity for all of them. We saw a younger U.S. team last Ryder Cup and they did what they did. So I’m hoping these younger guys who have grown up watching the Ryder Cup and seeing their idols do what they do, let’s say, it energizes the team a little bit in any manner and we show up there to win.”
Decisions are not unusual, of course, as captains for both sides always have to make picks for the matches (both teams will have six wild card selections this year). But the organizations that run this event — PGA of America on the U.S. side and European Tour on the European side — have some more philosophical choices to make before the captains make their selections.
Namely (as Rahm noted): Should LIV Golf player be eligible to participate in the Ryder Cup?
Several of the top players in the world left the PGA Tour and European Tour in 2022 to join the Saudi-backed startup golf league,…
Source : cbssports
