Lee Westwood believes Rory McIlroy was right to challenge Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton to show their Ryder Cup commitment.
Both Rahm and Hatton have yet to have their appeal heard against fines accrued from the DP World Tour for playing in LIV Golf events and McIlroy called on them to prove their loyalty to Team Europe and cough up the fines.
Controversy struck ahead of last year’s Ryder Cup when it emerged that the USA team would be paid to play in the biennial contest while European players countered by saying they would pay to play it. McIlroy insisted yesterday that now is the time to put your money where your mouth is in the case of Rahm and Hatton.
Westwood supported McIlroy’s comments when he wrote on X that he believes the five-time major winner is correct.
“The DP World Tour should set Jon and Tyrrell’s appeal date for mid-February,” Westwood said. “Then nobody can have any complaints. Everyone will have been treated the same.
“If they lose their appeal, they either have to pay the fines and can carry on or not pay the fines and resign and not be available for Ryder Cup. Then it will get interesting!!!”
In another post, the Englishman urged the Wentworth-based circuit to stop “the kicking of the can” and called on them to set a date for the hearing.
Hatton, who has formed a terrific partnership with Rahm in his four appearances for Europe to date responded to McIlroy’s comments on Wednesday:
“I’ve always been extremely proud to be a member on the DP World Tour, and certainly over the last couple of years, I’ve shown commitment to playing events here,” Hatton said.
“And then with the Ryder Cup, it’s pretty hard to make those teams, and I’ve been fortunate to play the last four. And everyone says once you’ve played one, you never want to miss another one, and I’m certainly no different from that.
“Hopefully I’ll be able to play more in the future. But hopefully the only thing that stops me from being able to play in them would be age and some younger, much more talented players taking my spot in that sense.
“So hopefully that’s the way that my Ryder Cup career would end.”
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