It irks Jon Rahm to look down the entry list for this week’s BMW PGA Championship and see the first man left out: Alfredo Garcia-Heredia, a 40-year-old Spanish professional and a friend of Rahm’s.
Garcia-Heredia has made 20 starts on the DP World Tour this season and sits No. 134 in the Race to Dubai, just 14 spots shy of retaining his membership on the European circuit. In other words, he’s fighting to keep his card.
Meanwhile, also in the field for the DPWT’s flagship event are 18 players who have teed it up in at least one LIV Golf event. That group includes DPWT and Ryder Cup stalwarts Sergio Garcia, Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter, but also a few guys – notably Abraham Ancer and Talor Gooch – who have either never or rarely played on the European-based circuit.
“It does bug me that somebody who has played 20 DP World events this year cannot be given the opportunity to play a flagship event because some people that earned it, to an extent, are being given an opportunity when they couldn’t care any less about the event. They don’t know. They don’t care. They don’t know the history of this event. They are only here because they are trying to get world-ranking points and trying to finish in the top 50 [to get into the majors], and that’s clear as day.”
“I’m not going to name any anybody,” Rahm continued, “but there are some of them that have never shown any interest. Like I said they are here for a different motive than supporting the [DP World Tour].”
Rahm said of certain LIV guys, “I’ve seen them, and I don’t speak to them,” though he does realize that he may have to play alongside them.
“I will have to, I mean, eventually, somebody,” Rahm said. “There’s [18] of them. One of them might play good, and hopefully I might play good enough to play there on the weekend. I am here to play golf. If I play with them, so be it.”