Despite his critical comments, Lowry still hopes Rahm will be eligible and qualify for the 2025 Ryder Cup.
The “grow the game” trope has been frequently used by players who have taken tens to hundreds of millions of dollars to join LIV Golf. The players who have turned down the cash offered by the Saudi Arabia-backed league, like Shane Lowry, are fed up with the cliché response.
Lowry, 36, addressed his Ryder Cup teammate Jon Rahm’s departure for LIV Golf, his reasons for leaving and his future Ryder Cup status at an event on Thursday for next September’s Irish Open at Royal County Down in Northern Ireland on Thursday.
“I think what Jon said about growing the game and stuff that’s obviously what they have to say,” Lowry told the Irish Independent. “They’ve signed on the dotted line. They’ve been told by the communications team that this is what you say when you’re asked this and you have no other choice really because they own you now.”
“I don’t know if it’s been damaging (to golf’s image) but people who have spent their hard-earned money going out to join a golf club and buy golf clubs and play golf for the weekend, it’s tough for them to listen to the guy who’s already worth whatever say he has to do this to put food on the table for his wife and kids,” he added.
Rahm said he doesn’t plan on giving up his DP World Tour membership so he can stay eligible for the Ryder Cup, and Lowry was hopeful that the Spaniard would remain in good enough form to qualify for the 2025 event at Bethpage Black in New York.
“The reason (Ian Poulter, Sergio Garcia or Lee Westwood) couldn’t play Ryder Cup this year was because they resigned their membership,” Lowry said. “There were certain players that would have been able to make the team if they played good enough, but they just didn’t. I am sure Rahmbo can play well enough to make the team, so if he doesn’t resign his membership, he can still make the team.”
Unlike his other European teammate, Viktor Hovland, Lowry refrained from blasting PGA Tour leadership and their mismanagement of the threat posed by LIV Golf, saying, “A lot of players have a lot of opinions on the leadership of the tour. But I don’t consider myself clever enough to be able to comment on running a billion-dollar organization.”
The 2019 Champion Golfer of the Year has a pair of wins on the PGA Tour and six on the DP World Tour dating back to his Irish Open victory as an amateur in 2009. Lowry is also a two-time member of Team Europe and boasts a 2-3-1 record in the biennial bash against the United States.
Aberg is the latest player to reject LIV Golf after Jon Rahm’s departure for the league.
A few days after Viktor Hovland dispelled LIV Golf rumors while also taking PGA Tour management to task, the Norwegian’s Ryder Cup teammate has shot down interest in the upstart circuit.
Ludvig Aberg, who has received offers from LIV Golf in the past, says he denied another offer from the Saudi Arabian-backed league following his breakout rookie season on the PGA Tour.
“When I look back, I am super confident in my decision,” Aberg told SVT Sport via a Google translation. “I will never try to chase money, what I do is to compete. I did the right thing.”
“I want to play against the best, because I am a competitive person and like to compete against the best players,” Aberg said. “Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like that at the moment, it’s a bit more fragmented.”
“When I look at the PGA Tour and the competitions there, there is so much history around all the competitions,” he added. “And that’s what I like, that’s what I go for. But then you have to respect everyone’s decisions.”
The 24-year-old rising Swedish star was the first player to earn his PGA Tour card via PGA Tour University and ran with his opportunity. Aberg missed just one cut in 11 starts, finished inside the top 25 eight times including a runner-up at the Sanderson Farms Championship and his first win at the season-ending RSM Classic. A month before his win at Sea Island, Aberg earned his first professional victory at the DP World Tour’s Omega European Masters. As a Ryder Cup rookie, Aberg compiled a 2-2 record, including an impressive 2-1 showing alongside Hovland.
LIV is still trying to fill its teams for the 2024 season, which begins in less than two months in Mexico. Aberg and Hovland joined Tony Finau as the high-profile PGA Tour players who have rejected the league in the wake of Jon Rahm’s departure.
The big names are few and far between at the first-ever promotions event.
The field is set for the first ever LIV Golf Promotions event.
Three spots are available at the inaugural event at Abu Dhabi Golf Club, Dec. 8-10, that will feature a field of 73 players. The top-three finishers from the three-day, four-round event will be drafted onto a LIV Golf League team ahead of the first event of the season at LIV Golf Mayakoba in Mexico, Feb. 2-4, 2024.
Fifty-nine players will compete in the first round Dec. 8, and the top 20 and ties will advance to the second round, where scores will reset. The advancing players will be joined by 14 players who are exempt into the second round. Another cut will be made after 36 holes to just the top 20 players. Scores will once again reset and the advancing 20 will compete for the top three over 36 holes on the final day. Players who finish Nos. 4-10 will be exempt for all 2024 events on The International Series sanctioned by the Asian Tour.
All four players who were relegated after the 2023 LIV Golf season – Sihwan Kim, Chase Koepka, Jed Morgan and James Piot – are in the field and automatically through to the second round.
The biggest names in the field are 2013 PGA Championship winner Jason Dufner, former Ryder Cuppers Victor Dubuisson and Jeff Overton, as well as amateurs Max Kennedy, Ryan Griffin and Sampson-Yunhe Zheng, the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship runner-up.
First round field
Player
OWGR rank
Jaco Ahlers
288
Bobby Bai
1184
Lachlan Barker
1258
Zach Bauchou
620
Austin Bautista
796
Lucas Bjerregaard
801
Miguel Carballo
866
Luis Carrera
2153
Lee Chieh-po
440
Chonlatit Chuenboonngam
669
Andrew Dodt
568
Victor Dubuisson
1013
Jaewoong Eom
381
Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano
1232
Ryan Griffin (a)
NR
Jeongwoo Ham
352
Seungsu Han
459
Scott Hend
739
Berry Henson
514
Jazz Janewattananond
345
Brendan Jones
615
Chanmin Jung
437
Sadom Kaewkanjana
218
Kyungnam Kang
349
Max Kennedy (a)
4113
Taichi Kho
385
Phachara Khongwatmai
224
Bio Kim
302
Ronan Kleu
2368
Karandeep Kochhar
474
Guntaek Koh
323
Jinichiro Kozuma
528
Junghwan Lee
408
Richard T. Lee
320
Taehee Lee
490
Steve Lewton
346
Luis Masaveu (a)
2360
Kyongjun Moon
471
Kerry Mountcastle
1390
Zach Murray
789
Jeff Overton
1733
Turk Petit
819
Settee Prakongvech
566
Tapio Pulkkanen
357
Alvaro Quiros
992
Ryan Ruffels
1708
Poom Saksansin
363
Micah Lauren Shin
686
Travis Smyth
269
Joel Stalter
1048
Kyle Stanley
1272
Chris Stroud
627
Sarit Suwannarut
390
Miguel Tabuena
360
Nitithorn Thippong
407
Braden Thornberry
2029
Martin Trainer
604
Suradit Yongcharoenchai
762
Kevin Yuan
672
Players exempt for second round
Player
OWGR rank
Gaganjeet Bhullar
210
Ben Campbell
247
Laurie Canter
299
Kevin Chappell
560
Gunn Charoenkul
559
Jason Dufner
543
Sihwan Kim
496
Chase Koepka
1,437
Jed Morgan
982
Wade Ormsby
504
James Piot
1,104
Kalle Samooja
285
Kieran Vincent
412
Sampson-Yunhe Zheng (a)
NR
For players exempt into the second round, it’s important to note many have spent the last year-and-a-half with LIV and haven’t received Official World Golf Ranking points for their performances, which has negatively impacted their standing. Their play with LIV, however, also wasn’t good enough to earn another contract.
“Great opportunities don’t come along very often in life.”
Luke Donald has been named as the European Captain for the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black in New York.
The 45-year-old Englishman returns to the role having led Europe to a 16½ – 11½ victory against the United States in the 2023 Ryder Cup at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club in Rome, Italy, earlier this year.
He will become Europe’s first repeat captain since Bernard Gallacher performed the role in three consecutive Ryder Cups in 1991, 1993 and 1995.
Donald will be aiming to become only the second captain to lead Europe to victories both home and away, following Tony Jacklin, who achieved the double at Muirfield Village in Ohio in 1987, retaining the Ryder Cup following his team’s victory two years previously at The Belfry, in England, in 1985.
“Great opportunities don’t come along very often in life, and I’m a great believer that when they do, you need to grab them with both hands – this is one of these moments,” Donald said. “I’ve been fortunate as a player to have had many amazing times in the Ryder Cup over the years and so to add being a winning Captain to that, to form bonds with the 12 players like we did in Italy and to get the result we did, was very special indeed.
“The Ryder Cup means so much to me, so to be Captain again and have the chance to create more history by becoming only the second European Captain to win back-to-back is exciting.
Team Europe captain Luke Donald arrives at the first tee during day one foursomes round for the 44th Ryder Cup at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club. (Photo: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports)
“There is no question that being a Captain away from home is a tough task. But I have never shied away from challenges throughout my career and it is precisely the kind of thing that motivates me. I can’t wait to get another 12-strong team to Bethpage in 2025.”
Initially, Donald was overlooked as 2023 Ryder Cup captain as Europe selected Sweden’s Henrik Stenson for the job, but Stenson was stripped of the honor when he bolted for LIV Golf, the upstart league. Donald was the second choice then, but he’s clearly the first choice now, and Team Europe decided not to wait to see whether any of the European players who departed for LIV and had previously appeared to be in the pipeline for captaincy, such as Lee Westwood or Ian Poulter, would return to the fold.
Donald was a member of the last European Team to win on American soil at Medinah Country Club in 2012, when he led Jose Maria Olazabal’s side out in the singles, securing the first blue point on the board in one of the most famous comebacks in the history of the biennial contest.
During his playing career, he represented Europe in the Ryder Cup four times as a player, being part of a winning team on all four occasions, contributing 10½ points from his 15 matches.
He then served as a vice captain in 2018, under Thomas Bjorn, and Padraig Harrington in 2021, before becoming captain for the first time at the 2023 contest in Rome.
Donald has won five times on the PGA Tour and another eight times on the DP World Tour and ascended to No. 1 in the world for a total of 56 weeks. In 2011, he became the first player in history to top the money lists on the European Tour (now the DP World Tour) and the PGA Tour in the same year.
“I have had a nice individual career; I have accomplished a significant amount as a player. My most special moments have been in The Ryder Cup editions, and being able to share that in a team atmosphere,” Donald said. “[Being captain] felt like a lifetime achievement award when I found out that I was given the honor and privilege to be nominated as captain. It is something that I do not take lightly. I think about it every day and more specifically around what we can do to give our team the best chance of success and to build that right culture and environment…Everyone knows how special The Ryder Cup has been as part of my career and this is an opportunity of a lifetime. It is a big responsibility but I am going to try and enjoy the journey.”
Rahm has been among the best players in the world for years and looks to be one of the greats of his generation.
Jon Rahm, the 2021 U.S. Open champion, has grown up right in front of our eyes.
A former No. 1 player in the world, Rahm has been a mainstay on Tour since his debut in 2016. Affectionately known as “Rahmbo,” the Spaniard is known for his fiery passion and flair for the dramatic.
With more than a dozen professional wins and a major championship under his belt, Rahm has been among the best players in the world for years and looks to be one of the greats of his generation.
In November of 2023, prior to his 29th birthday, Rahm, an 11-time winner on the PGA Tour and the Player of the Year in 2021, was removed from the TGL social media posts and the league’s website.
The news sent social media into a frenzy with rumors and claims that Rahm may be the next player to join LIV Golf, especially after Phil Mickelson and LIV officials said at the recent team championship that new talent would make the jump to LIV in 2024. Rahm was, at one point, managed by Phil’s brother, Tim, and both Rahm and Lefty are managed by the same agency, Sportfive.
The 2023 Masters champion was adamant that he wanted LIV Golf’s Sergio Garcia to be involved in the recent Ryder Cup, but he has also been outspoken in his support for the Tour over the last year.
Check out some of the best photos of Rahm throughout his amateur and professional career:
“America, to be honest, I looked and thought, ‘These guys, they’ve got too much peripheral vision.'”
Nick Faldo retired from his role as lead analyst for CBS Sports’s PGA Tour coverage, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t still a man of many opinions.
Speaking on SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio’s “Gravy & The Sleeze” show Wednesday, Faldo, a former stalwart of Team Europe and team captain in 2008, touched on several topics including takeaways from last month’s Ryder Cup.
“The Big Four (European players) came in and you’ve got to get a huge bunch of points,” he said. “Then I thought it was very cool that our rookies, America doesn’t know a lot about our rookies, [Nicolai] Hojgaard and [Ludvig] Aberg and Bobby MacIntyre, they don’t know a lot about these guys and that can be very useful. So, which they obviously did, the captains can say, ‘Relax, you’ve all to gain this week. If you can just get me a point you’ve done a great job.’ Well, they did more than that. So we got that added bonus as well. And then we had to look at Zach’s picks, his six picks, I mean, all those guys are great guys, great golfers, but they were all running hot and cold, or trying to find their games and saying, you know, ‘I can turn it on for you, Captain.’
“But I’ve been there and got the T-shirt. When you’re not playing great at a Ryder Cup I can promise you it is the worst arena to be playing in because you are under so much pressure to do something for the rest of the team. And you won’t find it, and we saw all of that unravel. And Europe was extremely focused. You could literally see it in their eyes right on the first tee. They stood up there and looked down the fairway. And America, to be honest, I looked and thought, ‘These guys, they’ve got too much peripheral vision. They’re just looking at everything.’ And Europe was very focused on the job at hand, what they had to do.”
Faldo also addressed the differences he sees between the LIV Golf League and the PGA Tour.
“It is a different style of golf (LIV). And the Tour is the Tour, or the Tours, you know, and we would deem it as proper golf, 72 holes, 36-hole cut. All of that is all part of your learning experience. ‘Cause you’ve gotta strive, you know? Here’s the bottom line, you know, you’ve got to strive, you know, everything in life is a struggle, isn’t it? So you strive and from striving, you then achieve something,” he said. “So if you’ve achieved something, you then get satisfaction from doing that. And then from your satisfaction, you then create a memory. Well, if there’s nothing to strive for then there’s no memory. When I look back at my career, you don’t think of the dollar sign. You think, I went through a swing change for two years and then came out of it and finally winning, win my first major and what have you, and then became a pretty darn decent golfer for five years. That makes you proud of what you did. And that’s with me forever. I mean, that’s where I see a difference. Sure, I would’ve loved to earn tens of millions more. I’m not denying that. But there’s something about competing and putting yourself through the ringer, and then you feel proud of your achievements. … That’s why I think the Tour’s competitive golf will stand up because their tour is not the same competition. It really isn’t.”
“If LIV plucks a bunch of guys off of the Tour as is rumored, why would I even watch the Ryder Cup?”
Rory McIlroy put it best during Team Europe’s Ryder Cup winner’s press conference: Winning a Ryder Cup on the road may be the hardest thing to do in sports.
Considering that the U.S. side hasn’t won on European soil since 1993 and the Euros needed the Miracle at Medinah to rally from a 10-6 deficit to do so in 2012, McIlroy has a good argument. The home team has held serve ever since but more troubling is the fact that you have to go back to the 2012 edition of the biennial competition for the last time we didn’t have a blowout. Sundays have largely been a foregone conclusion as to which side is going to win.
Want to make the Ryder Cup great again? How about giving arguably the two best captains of the modern era another shot behind the wheel to see if either of them can win on the road. In other words, Paul McGinley, who guided the Euros to a beatdown of the Americans in Scotland in 2014, as Europe’s captain in 2025 at Bethpage, and Paul Azinger, who was brilliant at the helm in 2008 in Louisville, in 2027 in Ireland.
When I proposed this scenario to Azinger, he chuckled and said, “That would be awesome.”
“McGinley was a brilliant captain, he really was,” Azinger said. “There’s only so much a captain can do but he has a huge responsibility to create an environment, to create a message and get his players to out-prepare the other team. I might have said to this U.S. Ryder Cup team that if you were in the top six (an automatic qualifier to the team) do whatever you want, you made it, but the next six, you have to play the week before or two weeks before or I’m not going to pick you. That’s the way it is, sorry. You have to promise me you’re going to play. Everyone knew they didn’t play enough going in. That to me was the biggest way they out-prepared us.”
Europe players lift their captain Paul McGinley as he holds the trophy after winning the 2014 Ryder Cup.
Azinger laughed when I said let either Tiger Woods if he wants the job at Bethpage or Stewart Cink or even Fred Couples take a turn in 2025 but let’s get going on 2027 to end this seemingly endless losing streak on the road. The idea of taking another bite at the captaincy? He says that ship has passed.
“I lobbied in 2010 to carry the flag and win the cup on the road. The PGA of America told me, ‘There’s more captains than there are Ryder Cups.’ I said, ‘OK, that’s fine.’ They chose Corey Pavin. Then they get (Tom) Watson and (Davis) Love again. I wanted that challenge but it was 17 years earlier. I think I’m passed due. I’ll be 67. It’s not fair to a guy like Stewart Cink. I think he’ll be an awesome captain. I’d roll in as an assistant captain. They’ve got a clique going now. It’s the result of the Task Force. Sometimes cliques are incredible. Let’s not forget they won the last Cup by 10 points but I think it’s time to break the clique up…I worry that Tiger is going to want Freddie and Davis and Strick again. I would like to see a different group be in there as assistants that can be future captains.”
McGinley echoed a similar sentiment that his window for a return engagement as captain has closed.
“I think we’ve certainly nailed the home template but we haven’t written the template for away from home. I like the way you’re thinking but I think my ship has sailed in that regard. I’m 10 years aways from being a captain, I’m 56 years old, there’s a certain disconnection with the current crop of players,” he argued.
But McGinley, too, recognized that winning on the road has become the white whale for Ryder Cup captains and it was something he once desired.
“I think it so much more difficult away and I’d have loved to have written the away template but I thought it was greedy to go again,” he said. “I knew there were a lot of guys waiting patiently behind me and I thought it would be unfair to go again.”
But what once was a backlog of potential captains has become a shortage due to LIV, which wiped out Ian Poulter, Sergio Garcia, Lee Westwood, Henrik Stenson, Graeme McDowell and Paul Casey for Team Europe and Phil Mickelson, Bubba Watson and (eventually) Dustin Johnson from consideration. Let’s take this unique moment in time to determine once and for all which of these brilliant leaders of men can steer his team to victory away from home.
Azinger and McGinley both lived and breathed the job for two years and understood team dynamics better than anyone before or after in the captaincy role. Both are still active in their role as TV commentators and have a handle on the pulse of the game.
“I think I’d rather broadcast it, thank you, though,” Azinger said. “I think it’s really important at this point to have someone of their era who really knows the players.”
Who does he think should lead Europe into the hostile environment that will be Bethpage Black in 2025?
“It’s going to be contentious. Luke Donald is the perfect personality type. Otherwise, I would love to see Sergio (Garcia) but it will never happen. If I’m them, I’m bringing the most polished professional I can bring. If you can find anyone more polished and buttoned up than Luke, let me know,” he said.
“It wouldn’t be a big surprise if Luke was to go again,” McGinley added. “In an ideal world, you should do two captaincies – one home and one away. That would be a real test of the captain, wouldn’t it?”
Azinger expressed one concern for the Ryder Cup going forward: Will the U.S. be able to field its best team?
“I really fear for the next Ryder Cup,” he said. “If LIV plucks a bunch of guys off of the Tour as is rumored, why would I even watch the Ryder Cup? That’s the way I’m feeling about it. It’s just not America vs Europe anymore. I mean, it is, but it wouldn’t be our best players. I fear for the Ryder Cup because of LIV.”
You heard it here first: McGinley in ’25, Azinger in ’27. Let’s settle who is the best captain once and for all.
There’s a good chance the trash talk between the two teams won’t stop until 2025 at Bethpage Black.
The United States’ struggles in Europe continued at the 2023 Ryder Cup at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club outside Rome, losing to the Europeans 16½-11½.
Many of the players who participated in the biennial bash stayed put for a few days after Sunday night to take in the sights and spend some time with their loved ones.
Justin Thomas was part of that group, and he posted a photo dump of a Lake Como vacation with his wife, Jillian, to his Instagram.
One of the comments on the post came from European Ryder Cupper Shane Lowry — who went 1-1-1 in Italy — who posed a simple question: “Any pics from Rome???”
JT — who went 1-2-1 — replied, saying, “Shane it’s been two weeks and was starting to forget……”
More than 270,000 people from 100 different countries attended the 2023 Ryder Cup to watch the Europeans defeat the Americans, 16½-11½, and reclaim the cup at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club near Rome, Italy.
Even more watched from home.
On Tuesday, Ryder Cup Europe shared early numbers that showed a rise in average viewership on Sky Sports, particularly in the United Kingdom, which saw a 38 percent increase compared to the 2021 Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits and a 25 percent increase from the last European-hosted Cup in 2018 at Le Golf National near Paris.
“The 2023 Ryder Cup in Italy once again underlined the global appeal and continued growth of one of the world’s leading sporting events,” said Guy Kinnings, Executive Director of the Ryder Cup. “This year’s contest, played against the backdrop of the historic city of Rome, truly connected with fans around the world, and our early figures show significant increases in engagement even from the recent record-breaking editions.”
While the 2023 edition was the most watched Ryder Cup ever on Sky Sports, the NBC Sports coverage in the United States left fans wanting more.
Not even two hours into the coverage of the Friday foursomes matches and television viewers who were awake at 1 a.m. ET for the start were already fed up with the coverage (or lack thereof).
Airing on USA Network, the broadcast missed the introductions and tee shots from the third match of Shane Lowry and Sepp Straka vs. Rickie Fowler and Collin Morikawa and showed more commercials than golf shots. This year’s broadcast featured a score bug in the bottom right of the screen that showed the matches and live results, which was a nice innovation, except when the coverage didn’t provide context for how those scores came to be.
The 2025 Ryder Cup, the 45th playing of the biennial bash between the U.S. and Europe, will be held at Bethpage Black in New York.
So who’s going to be the U.S. captain in 2025 at Bethpage Black?
Speculation is ramping up but Davis Love III, who led the U.S. to Ryder Cup wins in 2012 and 2016, knows who should get a call in the immediate future.
“We’ve got to call Tiger Woods and ask him,” Love said at Timuquana Country Club in Jacksonville, Florida, ahead of the Furyk & Friends. “I think if he wants … obviously Tiger’s into a lot of stuff right now, but it’s kind of his call, I would say. I hate to put pressure on him, but it’s kind of his call. Obviously, with some guys out, he’s the next logical choice.”
When asked about the strategy of bringing in some new blood in the captain’s spot, Love didn’t hesitate to admit it’s time for him to move on.
“They need to get rid of guys like Davis Love and probably Fred Couples and move on. I’m lobbying for it,” he said, admitting it will be difficult to step away and let others take over the reins.
“It’s incredibly hard. I told a few people over at the Ryder Cup, I said, ‘man, this is my last time’, and they were like ‘no, no, no’, and I’m like ‘yeah, yeah, yeah, it’s time.’ I told that to Tiger in 2019, I said I’m done. He said, ‘yeah, you’re right, probably time, who do we think we ought to get, young guys,’ and then [Steve] Stricker brought me right back in the next year.
“You know, I’ll never quit helping if they want me to help, but I’d be better in logistics now, behind the scenes. Tiger’s been a big help behind the scenes. Maybe that’s what he and I want to keep doing is stay behind the scenes and help out Stewart Cink or whoever the next guy is.”
Love also mentioned Webb Simpson, an assistant captain on the winning 2022 Presidents Cup team, as a solid future choice for Ryder Cup captain.
