The DP World Tour announced Saturday morning that it will allow eight of its members to compete in competitive LIV golf events in 2026.
Tyrell Hatton, Rory Canter, Thomas Detley, Tom McKibbin, Adrian Mellonk, Victor Perez, David Puig, and Elvis Smiley have agreed to conditional releases that allow them to remain members of the DP World Tour while competing in LIV as long as they pay outstanding fines, drop their pending appeals against the Tour, and participate in more defined Tour events and promotions. Two-time major champion and former world number one Jon Rahm was not on the list.
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“The terms accepted by these members will provide further value to the DP World Tour and benefit the membership as a whole,” the tour said in a statement on Saturday. “As long as each member meets the conditions of their individual release, no disciplinary action will be taken under the regulations for participating in LIV Golf’s conflicting tournaments in 2026, and their membership status will be maintained.”
Jon Rahm of Spain reacts on the 18th green during the fourth day of the Open de España Presents by Madrid 2025 at Club de Campo Villa de Madrid on October 12, 2025 in Madrid, Spain.
DP World Tour members competing at LIV Golf are in violation of the tour’s conflicting events policy, which requires a release to play elsewhere. The Tour began fining members who compete in LIV golf events in 2022 and won a British arbitration case in 2023, allowing enforcement of those penalties.
For the first few years, LIV passed on that fee to players as a way to attract and retain talent, but last July the league announced it was discontinuing that. The development was critical as DP World Tour membership is mandatory to join a European Ryder Cup team.
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Rahm and Hatton have appealed the fines, allowing them to continue competing on the DP World Tour and compete in the 2025 Ryder Cup with Bethpage Black. Hatton is listed as having agreed to the tour’s proposed conditional release, but Rahm appears to still be resisting, potentially jeopardizing his eligibility for the 2027 Ryder Cup at Adare Manor in Ireland.
Perhaps Rahm is waiting for a more permanent solution, as the DP World Tour said in a statement on Saturday that these conditional releases only apply to the 2026 season and do not set a precedent going forward. Earlier this month, Rahm praised the tour’s efforts to resolve the situation.
“I don’t know what it will be or what it will be like, but I’m happy to see them looking for a way forward so that LIV players can play on both tours and not get penalized,” Rahm said on February 2.
However, the terms offered by the DP World Tour do not appear to have satisfied Rahm, and if the incident is not resolved within the next 18 months, his status as a potential contender for a European Ryder Cup team could be in jeopardy.
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Rahm was one of three members of LIV Golf, along with Bryson DeChambeau and Cam Smith, who were offered a special return path to the PGA Tour last month. This is the same route that allowed Brooks Koepka to return after being released from his LIV contract in December. The deadline to accept a contract from the PGA Tour’s Returning Member Program has since passed, so Rahm, DeChambeau and Smith remain members of LIV Golf, where the season continues in Hong Kong in two weeks.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Jon Rahm not among eight LIV Golf members released by DP World Tour
