Three LIV Golf rebels set for Ryder Cup U-turn after PGA Tour’s Saudi agreement

Europe’s LIV rebels could yet be involved in September’s Ryder Cup after yesterday’s shock peace deal with the golf establishment. Sergio Garcia, Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter had been written out of the script after resigning their DP World Tour memberships following the imposition of fines and suspensions for playing on the LIV Tour.

However the unlikely rapprochement in the agreement no-one saw coming means a place in Luke Donald’s team for Rome could be back on the agenda. If any of the rebels were included it would cause issues with Rory McIlroy who has been strident in his opposition.

But Jon Rahm, who played alongside Garcia at Whistling Straits two years ago, has made no secret of his desire to do so again. “They would have to do a number of things,” said DP World Tour chief executive Keith Pelley.

“They would have to request to be reinstated. They would then have to serve their suspensions and they would have to pay their fines and then they would have to qualify or be selected by Luke.

“It would have to be an exceptional circumstance to allow them to reinstate their membership based on the rules and regulations as the deadline is May 1.”

It would be hard to argue that yesterday’s developments were anything but exceptional. Sworn enemies became new friends in the swish of a seven iron. The bombshell announcement dropped yesterday after clandestine face-to-face talks between a handful of representatives of the warring factions.

“The PGA Tour, DP World Tour and the Public Investment Fund (PIF) today announced a landmark agreement to unify the game of golf, on a global basis,” an official statement read.

“The parties have signed an agreement that combines PIF’s golf-related commercial businesses and rights (including LIV Golf) with the commercial businesses and rights of the PGA Tour and DP World Tour into a new, collectively owned, for-profit entity to ensure that all stakeholders benefit from a model that delivers maximum excitement and competition among the game’s best players.”

Flesh will be put on the bones of yesterday’s framework agreement over the coming weeks but join the dots and a global circuit featuring the top players competing in a limited number of mega-money super-tournaments to run around the Majors would appear to be the destination.

“I can’t tell you and predict what’s going to happen in the future but I just think it will be better,” said Pelley. The lack of consultation with the players was criticised by some.

“Nothing like finding out on Twitter that we’re merging with a tour that we said we’d never do that with,” tweeted Canada’s Mackenzie Hughes.

But the deal was welcomed by the sport’s governing body, the R&A. “We are pleased that an agreement has been reached which will help men’s professional golf move forward in a collaborative, constructive and innovative fashion,” said chief executive Martin Slumbers.

“We care deeply about golf’s future and are committed to ensuring that the sport continues to thrive for many years to come. This agreement represents a huge step toward achieving that goal for golf and we look forward to working with the new entity for the benefit of the sport globally.”