Jon Rahm has reportedly decided to skip the DP World Tour Championship after competing in the minimum four regular season events he needed to retain his membership. The Spaniard also harbours hopes of making Luke Donald’s Team Europe squad for the Ryder Cup next year.
Rahm qualified for the DP World Tour Championship by finishing inside the top 50 in the DP World Tour Rankings. The £8.2million event is the last in the tour’s calendar and is limited to only 50 players.
A record three titles at the Earth Course makes the tournament one of the 29-year-old’s favourites. However, he has opted not to attend.
“Jon Rahm has not entered the DP World Tour Championship,” a spokesperson told Golf Magic.
Rahm also missed the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship earlier this month. He has been allowed back onto the DP World Tour subject to an appeal over fines he received for joining the breakaway LIV Golf Tour at the end of last year.
“I’m not a big fan of the fines. I don’t intend to pay the fines and we keep trying to have a discussion with them (the DP World Tour) about how we can make this happen,” the two-time major champion recently said.
“I intend to play in Spain. Whether they let me play or not is a different thing.”
Rahm joined the Saudi-backed league in a reported £450m switch and made his debut earlier this year. However, he wants to retain his DP World Tour membership in a bid to feature at the 2025 Ryder Cup.
He had to play in just four tournaments to keep hold of his tour card. Having fulfilled that requirement by competing at the Olympics, the Open de Espana, Dunhill Links and Andalucia Masters, Rahm has not played in any more.
The former world No. 1 recently welcomed a baby daughter to his family and has scaled back the number of tournaments he was going to play in the final months of the year.
Some reports suggest that Rahm regrets accepting an offer from LIV Golf, although this has not been confirmed.
“I am 100 percent positive that if Jon could give the money back to the Saudis and come back to the tour, he couldn’t write the cheque fast enough,” an unnamed source is claimed to have told Golf Digest host Jaime Diaz.
