World No.2 Jon Rahm has thrown his support behind LIV golfers banned from the Ryder Cup with the tournament beginning in just under four months.
Fellow Spaniard Sergio Garcia will be absent from this year’s edition, after he resigned from the European Tour in May, having played in LIV tournaments.
Garcia and Rahm went undefeated in the three matches they played together in 2021 with the latter expressing his sadness at not having Europe’s all-time record points scorer by his side.
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“I’m going to miss him. We had a great partnership at Whistling Straits,” he said ahead of this week.
“I’m going to mention history again one more time. A Spanish duo in the Ryder Cup … to me is embedded into the roots of the Ryder Cup. Look what Seve (Ballesteros) and (Jose Maria Olazabal) were able to do throughout their partnership, right.
“So it’s a little sad to me that politics have gotten in the way of such a beautiful event.”
In February, the DP World Tour won an arbitration case to suspend and fine players after they played in two LIV events without official releases.
This coincided with Garcia asking European Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald, in the lead up to his resignation, whether he was a chance of making the team.
Garcia was told he was “no chance”.
Despite the rules and regulations behind the decision, Rahm believes it’s to the detriment of the tournament.
“Again, it’s the best Europeans against the best Americans, period. And whatever is going on, who is playing LIV and who is not playing LIV, to me, shouldn’t matter,” he said.
“It’s whoever is best suited to represent the European side. And I have a hard time to believe that the best player Europe has ever had, the most successful player Europe has had on the Ryder Cup, isn’t fit to be on the team.”
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