Ryder Cup vice-captain Edoardo Molinari has claimed a deal will be reached to see LIV Golf stars Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton tee up for Europe next year.
And Masters champion Rahm said he wants “some type of peace” to reunite the game. PGA Tour boss Jay Monahan confirmed “constructive” Bahamas peace talks between the Saudi Public Investment Fund boss Yasir Al-Rumayyan and PGA Tour stars on Monday. Tiger Woods was among the six players involved in the talks.
World No.3 Rahm signed for LIV in a $600m deal in December - and was followed by his Ryder Cup team-mate Hatton. Both players are technically still eligible for Luke Donald’s team at Bethpage Black because they have not resigned from the DP World Tour.
But they can only currently qualify through the Majors and they would have to pay fines and serve suspensions. But Molinari, the stats guru behind Europe’s Rome triumph, said: “I think that in two years we will find a way to be able to pick them anyway.
"The only requirement at the moment is that they are members of the European Tour. I believe someone like Rahm, whatever the cost, wants to play the Ryder Cup. So I don’t think he will resign from the European Tour.” But world No.418 Molinari, who tees up at the Porsche Singapore Classic on Thursday, revealed another Ryder Cup star turned down the Saudi cash.
“I have always stayed living in Italy even at the cost of paying a bit more tax because I believe that there is a quality of life that doesn’t have a price,” the Italian told Gazzetta dello Sport. “Honestly I don’t understand players who are 20 or 30 years old and risk throwing away their careers to go to LIV Golf.
"Of course if they come to me and offer me 300 million, it would change my life but they haven’t come. A few weeks ago I was speaking to Nicolai Hojgaard, who had a good offer but turned it down because he knows that if he continues to play well, he will still earn a lot of money but will be freer to make certain decisions and will be sure of playing the Majors.
"It is difficult to say no when faced with a lot of money but if you make choices based only on money, you risk regretting them one day.” In a teleconference from Augusta on Tuesday, Rahm revealed the menu for his Champions Dinner next month - including his grandmother’s lentil stew - and his recipe for golf’s future.
"I think there's a way of co-existing and, if there's some type of union, I don't know what that looks like. I just want to see again the best in the world being able to compete against the best in the world, whatever that looks like,” said the Spaniard.
"If there is some type of peace achieved I think it can actually push the game forward."
The PGA Tour signed a deal worth up to $3bn with the Strategic Sports Group in January. And Monahan said last week that talks with PIF over additional investment were “accelerating”.
Speaking about the Nassau meeting, he added: “During the session, Yasir had a chance to introduce himself to our player directors and talk through his vision, priorities and motivations for investing in professional golf.
“As we continue these discussions with the PIF, we will keep you updated as much as possible, but please understand that we need to maintain our position of not conducting negotiations in public. To that end, we will provide no further comments to the media at this time.”
