SUTTON COLDFIELD, England — To the surprise of many observers, Tyrrell Hatton is in the field for this week’s Betfred British Masters at The Belfry. That’s unusual because the three-time European Ryder Cup player joined the LIV Golf League at the start of this year and hasn’t played a regular DP World Tour event since the Hero Dubai Desert in January.
Since then, Hatton, a member of the Legion XIII team, has competed in 12 LIV events, recording five top-10 finishes in addition to his lone victory in Nashville in late June. His worst finish (25th) came at the most recent event at The Greenbrier earlier this month and he’s made $10.6 million in individual earnings to date. In team events, the 32-year old Englishman has been more successful. Alongside Jon Rahm, Kieran Vincent and Caleb Surratt, Hatton has been part of four LIV victories so far in 2024.
Still, what’s going on? Amidst the now long-time acrimony between LIV and the DP World Tour, how can Hatton be playing on both sides of that particularly high fence?
The answer is both simple and almost endlessly complicated. Hatton, winner of six events and $24.4 million on the Old World circuit, continues to be a DP World Tour member and, as such, is technically able to enter any and all events on the Old World circuit. But every time he plays in a LIV event that clashes with a DP World Tour tournament, Hatton becomes liable to sanctions under the Wentworth-based circuit’s rules and regulations. Those penalties include fines and suspensions from future events.
Which is clear enough. But the question is then worth repeating: How and why is Hatton allowed to play this week at The Belfry? The answer is again to be found in the DP World Tour rulebook.
“Tyrrell has a pending appeal against sanctions imposed on him for breaching the DP World Tour’s Conflicting Tournament Regulation and in accordance with the DP World Tour’s Regulations, he is eligible to participate in the Betfred British Masters,” explains a tour spokesperson.
Such a situation is the same as that faced by the likes of Henrik Stenson, Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood (among others) when they appealed against similar sanctions imposed on the initial wave of players who jumped from the DP World Tour to LIV in June 2022. Those players were able to compete until April 2023 when the arbitration body, Sport Resolutions U.K., found in favor of the tour and ratified its right to impose disciplinary sanctions on the “rebel” players.
In other words, as Hatton remains a current member of the DP World Tour and has previously served any and all suspensions imposed on him, he is not suspended from this week’s event in his homeland. Plus, payment of any fines levied against him are at least temporarily stayed until the outcome of the appeal process is known. Which, as of today, it is not.
The Ryder Cup Controversy
The points race for the 2025 European Ryder Cup team starts at the Belfry on Thursday. There will be some kind of fanfare later in the week, and they will try to tell you that it matters. It never mattered less.
With the new qualification system heavily weighted towards the Majors and the biggest events on the PGA Tour, and an unprecedented six captain’s picks for Luke Donald, the European captain, you could speculate on 10 of the 12 names now and be confident about nine of them. The prickly variables are Jon Rahm and Tyrell Hatton.
Do they matter? When Europe routed the USA in Rome, 11 months ago, Rory McIlroy led the European scoring with four points, but Hatton was joint second on 3½ points and Rahm was next on three. The impressive subtext of Rahm’s performance, though, was that he was undefeated in three matches against Scottie Scheffler, the best player in the world.
The problem is that, in the meantime, Rahm and Hatton have sold their souls to the biggest sportswashing project in the history of sport. None of the other defectors to LIV were selected for Europe at the last Ryder Cup, but that wasn’t an agonised call: all of them were busted flushes at that level and none of them was missed.
So, what happens with Rahm and Hatton? Will they be accommodated? Are they prepared to toe the line and lose some face in the process? Should we care? Should they just be abandoned?
In the bigger picture, nothing is settled. After the emergence of LIV, the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour tried to stand their ground until they realised that, in elite sport, principles are expensive, and, ultimately, they couldn’t afford all of them.
Some kind of post-Cold War reunification of golf is moving slowly, or not at all. It is more than two years since the PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and Saudi Investment Fund governor Yasir Al Rumayyan blindsided everyone with a Framework Agreement, designed to bring the game back together.
But no developments are expected before the end of this year, and it is accepted that the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour and LIV Golf will continue with their current schedules next season.
As the game splintered the DP World Tour, though, stood its ground on the issue of eligibility. Some of the early defectors wanted the option of playing on the DP World Tour during the frequent breaks in LIV’s schedule, while also being free to play a LIV event – with impunity – in the case of a scheduling clash.
This dispute ended up in the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which ruled in favour of the DP World Tour. Any player who wanted to maintain their membership of the DP World Tour would need permission to play in clashing events on the LIV schedule. Failure to secure that permission would lead to fines and suspensions.
In terms of the Ryder Cup this has relevance now for Rahm and Hatton. To play for Europe you must be a member of DP World Tour; to maintain that membership you must play at least four DP World Tour events, outside of the Majors.
It is a token commitment originally designed to facilitate Europe’s elite players, all of whom have decamped to America. In practical terms it usually means turning up at the co-sanctioned Scottish Open in midsummer, followed by an assortment of late-season appearances after the FedEx Cup has concluded.
That option is still available to Rahm and Hatton, if they pay their fines and serve their suspensions. In both cases, it is believed the fines run into seven figures. There is an unconfirmed suggestion that LIV would stump up but, either way, Rahm and Hatton are not short of a bob.
Serving the suspensions would be an exercise in optics. With the LIV season nearing a close, there are plenty of blank weeks in the coming months where Rahm and Hatton could be seen to be sitting out DP World Tour events, having already paid their fines.
The indications are that Hatton is prepared to play this game and he is entered in the British Masters at the Belfry this week. Rahm, though, is a different story. It is understood that he has no desire to pay any fines and has not indicated a desire to appear in DP World Tour events in the coming months.
With the first wave of LIV defectors, it was easy to dismiss their relevance to the European team. Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood had reached a point in their careers where their only future in the event was as potential captains and vice-captains.
Garcia campaigned for a captain’s pick last year but, like Rahm, it is understood that he had no desire to pay the required fines either. On top of that, he publicly thrashed the DP World Tour as he was leaving. In the team room and elsewhere there was no sympathy for his plea.
As soon as Rahm left for LIV Rory McIlroy said that the “rules would have to be changed” to ensure that Rahm was available for the matches at Bethpage next year. Before last year’s Ryder Cup, McIlroy’s attitude to the LIV defectors and their availability was pointedly different. In Rahm’s case, McIlroy was thinking about Europe’s chances of winning. In the event, no rules have been changed: the conditions for eligibility remain the same.
How much does it matter? The Rahm that turned up at the Majors this year – his competitive edge dulled from 54-hole tournaments against shallow fields – would be of little use to Europe. He was tied 45th at the Masters, missed the cut at the US PGA Championship, withdrew from the US Open and managed a backdoor top 10 at the Open with a good final round.
Anyway, it shouldn’t come down to that. Hatton and Rahm aligned themselves with a repulsive regime in a project designed to buffer its reputation. Could you root for them?
For the Ryder Cup, they should be cut adrift.
Hatton's Return to the DP World Tour
Tyrrell Hatton became one of the marquee names to join the LIV Golf setup earlier this year, but this week his focus will return back to the DP World Tour at The Belfry.
Tyrrell Hatton will make his return to the DP World Tour this week, with the LIV Golf star teeing it up at The Belfry for the Betfred British Masters. Hatton has played just once on the DP World Tour this campaign, coming at the Dubai Desert Classic in January. Just a week later, the Englishman left professional golf in shock, after opting to make the switch to LIV, joining his Ryder Cup partner Jon Rahm at Legion XIII.
Both Hatton and Rahm played instrumental roles in Europe's comprehensive Ryder Cup victory over their American rivals at Marco Simone in Rome last Autumn, as Luke Donald's team regained the matchplay title.
Having been punished by the Wentworth-based circuit for competing in 'conflicting' LIV events with financial sanctions and suspensions, a whole host of LIV members opted to quit the DP World Tour, including Ian Poulter, Sergio Garcia, Lee Westwood and Henrik Stenson.
For now, Hatton has opted to remain a member of the European circuit, but runs the risk of losing his card if he fails to compete in four DP World Tour events in 2024. As mentioned, the Englishman's tournament tally currently stands at one, meaning he needs an additional three starts to remain on the member list.
And one of those will come this week, with Hatton headlining the British Masters field in Sutton Coldfield. Speaking at LIV's UK event at JCB Golf and Country Club last month, Hatton revealed he also has plans to compete on the DP World Tour when the LIV season comes to an end in September.
As well as The Belfry, the Legion XIII star has also targeted the Spanish Open and Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, in a bid to qualify for the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship as well as the season-ending DP World Tour Championship. "I'm down to play British Masters, Spanish Open and Dunhill Links," he said at JCB.
"Before but pretty much around obviously signing with LIV, those conversations were had, so the DP World Tour kind of knew where I stood with wanting to obviously maintain my membership and things like that, and the Ryder Cup is obviously very important to me. I need to be a member of the Tour, and I'm hoping that I can earn enough points in those three events that I just said to be able to play Abu Dhabi and Dubai in November. Yeah, once the LIV season finishes, then obviously my attention turns to the DP World Tour to try and gain the points that I need to gain, and Ryder Cup points start the week of Dallas. Yeah, that's another incentive to go play."
Donald's Dilemma
Doubt has grown over the future of Jon Rahm at the Ryder Cup following his mega-money move to LIV Golf, and now Team Europe captain Luke Donald has had his say.
Jon Rahm has been told by Team Europe's Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald that "he knows what to do" to remain eligible to compete in the matchplay event at Bethpage Black next September. Rahm played an instrumental part in Europe's comprehensive victory over the United States at Marco Simone in Rome last fall, as Donald's team regained the title they lost at Whistling Straits two years earlier. The Europeans now face the tricky task of defending their crown on away soil in front of a bumper New York crowd.
And they may be forced to do so without one of their star names, after Rahm opted to make the move to LIV Golf last December, putting his eligibility in the matchplay event in jeopardy. Whilst competing on the Saudi-backed circuit does not make a player ineligible to compete for Team Europe, it does bring some complications. Firstly, all European Ryder Cup hopefuls must remain a member of the DP World Tour, a privilege a number of the continent's most famous names have given up.
The likes of Ian Poulter, Sergio Garcia, and Lee Westwood all quit the Tour, having been fined and suspended for competing in 'conflicting' LIV events. This means three of Europe's most prized players are unable to represent their team on the Ryder Cup stage, but for now, Rahm remains safe.
Unlike Poulter and co, the former world No. 1 remains a DP World Tour member, however, that is not the end of his problems. To keep hold of his membership, Rahm is required to have played four events on the Wentworth-based circuit in 2024, a quota he is still yet to meet.
As things stand, the Spaniard has ticked off one of the four required tournaments, having represented his nation at the Olympic Games in Paris earlier this month. With the clock ticking though, doubt has been cast about whether he will be able to fulfil his requirements before the close of the year.
His Ryder Cup captain Donald revealed at the British Masters this week that he had been in conversation about the problem at hand. "Yeah, I've had many conversations, again, with Jon. He absolutely knows what the deal is," he claimed. "Nothing has changed from last year. I think he knew when he signed for LIV what the policies were on the DP World Tour. You have to play your four. Per all the policies, he can pay the fines or he can appeal like some of the guys have, and that gives him the opportunity to do that. Again, he knows that. It's really up to him to do that, and I hope very much that he wants to do that and become eligible. He certainly mentioned at the PGA Championship he was willing to do whatever it took to commit to me and the team. Again, I hope that happens. "
Rahm has admitted he does have plans to return to the DP World Tour following the end of the 2024 LIV season in September. Unsurprisingly he revealed his home event the Spanish Open is a target of his in October, but admitted he is unable to fully commit due to his wife, Kelly's ongoing pregnancy.
"We're still in conversations with the Tour," he declared at last month's Open Championship. "I haven't been able to play any Tour events, so yeah, we're going to have to sort it out before I want to tee it up hopefully at the Spanish Open. At this point, I'm so still waiting on what might happen with my wife and daughter that I don't know if I'll be able to play or not. So my fall is still a little bit of a question mark when it comes to playing golf."
