ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Rory McIlroy says it's “a shame” Jon Rahm is the only LIV Golf player unwilling to accept the terms of a European tour deal to eliminate future fines, and he brushed off concerns the Spaniard might not be eligible for the Ryder Cup team.
“The Ryder Cup is bigger than any one person,” McIlroy said Wednesday.
Rahm's future in the matches was placed in doubt this week when he refused the terms of the European tour offer — pay previous fines for not getting a release to play LIV Golf events, drop any appeals and add two tournaments to the minimum four required for European tour membership.
Rahm said at LIV Golf Hong Kong on Tuesday that the DP World Tour, as it is known commercially, was “extorting players” by forcing them to play two additional tournaments. Rahm said if the deal was to pay fines, drop appeals and play the minimum four events, he would have signed.
“I just don’t like the situation,” Rahm said. “I think we should be able to freely play where we want and have the choice to play where we want and not be dictated what we do.”
Tyrrell Hatton and seven other Europeans who play for Saudi-funded LIV Golf agreed to the conditions. The European tour would help decide which tournaments to play in an effort to boost the tournaments on the schedule.
“In my opinion, it's a really generous deal,” McIlroy said, adding that it was “much softer” than what the PGA Tour required of Brooks Koepka to return.
Koepka had to pay $5 million to charity, was ineligible for PGA Tour equity shares for five years and did not have access to FedEx Cup bonus money this year. He also could not play in the $20 million signature events unless he qualified.
“The European tour can only do so much to accommodate these guys,” McIlroy said. “If you want to play on the Ryder Cup you have to be a member of the DP World Tour. ... You have to abide by the rules and regulations.”
He said those rules meant being subject to fines if players don't get a release to play LIV Golf events when the European tour has a tournament that week.
The European deal would end the fines for LIV Golf players.
“Look, there's a reason eight of the nine guys took that deal, right?” McIlroy said. “I think it’s a really good deal. Yeah, obviously Jon doesn’t think so, and he’s obviously well within his rights to think that way. But I just don’t see what more the European tour can do to accommodate these guys to retain their membership.”
As for the European tour having a say in which additional tournaments to play, McIlroy needled Rahm by saying, “I'm sure Jon doesn't want to go to South Africa next week" for a LIV event.
LIV players have to play every event on the schedule instead of going elsewhere — Graeme McDowell would not have been excused to play the Irish Open when LIV Golf played in Oregon the same week in 2022.
“He signed a contract for LIV and he plays 14 events and the whole thing,” McIlroy said. "But the DP World Tour is well within its rights to protect itself as a members organization and as a business. And if you asked any DP World Tour member about the deal that they have cut with the LIV guys they would, I think they would all say that it was pretty generous.
“Again, there's a reason that eight of the nine took it, because they probably think the same thing,” he said. “And one guy thinks a little differently, and that’s a shame.”
McIlroy spoke at the Arnold Palmer Invitational on the same day Luke Donald was selected as European captain for the Ryder Cup a third straight time. Rahm has been on every Ryder Cup team since his debut in 2018.
“It’s great to see the clarity amongst the other players that have signed the conditional releases and understand that they are available (for the Ryder Cup),” Donald said. “Obviously, I haven’t talked to Jon so I don’t really want to comment on that yet. I know he has his own reasons. But I look forward to catching up with him and really hope that he’s available.”
Rahm's future with Europe, barring a change of mind, depends on a UK arbitration panel that is hearing his appeals. The panel in 2023 ruled in favor of the European tour that it had the right to impose fines as a membership organization. If it rules in the tour's favor in the Rahm case, his membership — and Ryder Cup eligibility — would be at risk.
“I think we should all be grateful that we have a platform like the Ryder Cup that we can play on and that we can showcase our skills and be a part of something that’s obviously way bigger than ourselves,” McIlroy said. “So at the end of the day it’s about the team, and no one player is bigger than the team.”
AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
FILE - Europe's captain Luke Donald poses with the trophy after winning the Ryder Cup golf tournament against the United States on the Bethpage Black golf course, Sunday, Sept. 28, 2025, in Farmingdale, N.Y. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson, File)
Rory McIlroy, from Northern Ireland, hits from the second tee during the final round of the Genesis Invitational golf tournament at Riviera Country Club, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026, in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Caroline Brehman )
FILE - Jon Rahm, left, of Spain, talks with Rory McIlroy, of Northern Ireland, on the practice range during a practice round in preparation for the Masters golf tournament at Augusta National Golf Club Tuesday, April 9, 2024, in Augusta, Ga. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)
WEST DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Sgt. Declan Coady had been checking in with his family from Kuwait every hour or two after the U.S. and Israel launched their military campaign against Iran, even as Iran launched retaliatory strikes against Israel and Gulf Arab states that host U.S. armed forces.
When he didn't respond to messages Sunday, “most of us started to wonder,” Coady's father, Andrew, told The Associated Press. “Your gut starts to get a feeling.”
A drone strike at a command center in Kuwait killed 20-year-old Coady of West Des Moines, Iowa, and five other service members of the U.S. Army Reserve who worked in logistics and kept troops supplied with food and equipment.
The other soldiers identified Tuesday by the Pentagon were: Sgt. 1st Class Nicole Amor, 39, of White Bear Lake, Minnesota; Capt. Cody Khork, 35, of Winter Haven, Florida; and Sgt. 1st Class Noah Tietjens, 42, of Bellevue, Nebraska.
U.S. Army base Fort Knox, Kentucky, said in a Facebook post that two additional names would be released once their next of kin has been notified. Their unit, headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa, is temporarily operating under the 1st Theater Sustainment Command at Fort Knox.
“Sadly, there will likely be more, before it ends. That’s the way it is,” President Donald Trump said of the deaths. Trump will attend the dignified transfers of the soldiers when they arrive in the U.S., the White House said Wednesday. The ritual honors service members killed in action.
Amor was just days away from returning to her husband and children.
“She was almost home,” her husband, Joey Amor, said Tuesday. “You don’t go to Kuwait thinking something’s going to happen, and for her to be one of the first — it hurts.”
Amor was an avid gardener who enjoyed making salsa from the peppers and tomatoes she grew with her son, a high school senior. She enjoyed rollerblading and bicycling with her fourth-grade daughter.
A week before the drone attack, Amor was moved off-base to a shipping container-style building that had no defenses, her husband said.
“They were in fear that the base they were on was going to get attacked and they felt it was safer in smaller groups in separate places,” he said.
Childhood friend Natalie Caruso wrote on Facebook that she was “absolutely heartbroken” about Amor's death.
“Nicole was always up for an adventure and she had such a contagious laugh!" Caruso wrote Wednesday.
Coady recently told his father he had been recommended for a promotion from specialist to sergeant, a rank he received posthumously.
He was among the youngest people in his class, trained to troubleshoot military computer systems, but he impressed his instructors, Andrew Coady said Tuesday.
“He trained hard, he worked hard, his physical fitness was important to him. He loved being a soldier,” Coady said. “He was also one of the most kindest people you would ever meet, and he would do anything and everything for anyone.”
Coady, an Eagle Scout, was close to his family and often called, even if for only a few minutes. He was studying cybersecurity at Drake University in Des Moines, and he wanted to become an officer.
“I still don’t fully think it’s real,” his sister Keira Coady said. “I just remember all of our conversations about what he was going to do when he came back."
Khork was very patriotic and wanted to serve in the military from childhood, his family said in a statement Tuesday.
He enlisted in the Army Reserve and joined Florida Southern College’s ROTC program.
“That commitment helped shape the course of his life and reflected the deep sense of duty that was always at the core of who he was,” his mother, Donna Burhans; father, James Khork; and stepmother, Stacey Khork; said in a statement.
Khork, who loved history, had a degree in political science.
His family described him as “the life of the party, known for his infectious spirit, generous heart, and deep care for those who served alongside him and for everyone blessed to know him.”
Abbas Jaffer posted Monday on Facebook about his friend of 16 years.
“My best friend, best man, and brother gave his life defending our country overseas,” Jaffer said.
Tietjens, who came from a military family, previously served alongside his father in Kuwait. When he returned home in February 2010, he reunited with his overjoyed wife in a local church’s gym.
“I thought he was going to be the last person in, because he hates all this (hoopla),” his wife, Michelle Tietjens, told the Lincoln Journal Star at the time.
Tietjens’ cousin Kaylyn Golike asked for prayers, especially for Tietjens’ 12-year-old son, wife and parents, as they navigate “unimaginable loss.”
“We lost a brave soldier this weekend and many hearts are broken,” Golike wrote on Facebook Tuesday.
Tietjens earned a black belt in Philippine Combatives and Taekwondo and was “an instructor who gave his time, discipline, and leadership to others,” the Philippine Martial Arts Alliance said on Facebook.
Army Staff Sgt. Jeff Coleman said Tietjens was his mentor.
"You could call him day or night,” Coleman told KETV. “He always took the time, you know, he made you feel important.”
Boone contributed from Boise, Idaho, and Toropin from Washington. Associated Press reporters Sarah Raza in Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Josh Funk and Margery Beck in Omaha, Nebraska; Jeff Martin in Atlanta; and David Fischer in Miami contributed.
Andrew Coady and his daughter Keira, right, talk about his son, Sgt. Declan Coady, 20, of West Des Moines, Iowa, outside their home, Tuesday, March 3, 2026, in West Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
This combination of images provided by the U.S. Army taken on May 16, 2025 shows, from top left, Sgt. Declan Coady, 20, of Des Moines, Iowa, Sgt. 1st Class Nicole Amor, 39, of White Bear Lake, Minn., Capt. Cody Khork, 35, of Lakeland, Fla., and Sgt. 1st Class Noah Tietjens, 42, of Bellevue, Neb. (Sgt. Brent Newton/U.S. Army via AP)
This combination of images provided by the U.S. Army taken on May 16, 2025 shows, from left, Sgt. Declan Coady, 20, of Des Moines, Iowa, Sgt. 1st Class Nicole Amor, 39, of White Bear Lake, Minn., Capt. Cody Khork, 35, of Lakeland, Fla., and Sgt. 1st Class Noah Tietjens, 42, of Bellevue, Neb. (Sgt. Brent Newton/U.S. Army via AP)
This image provided by the U.S. Army shows Sgt. Declan Coady, 20, of Des Moines, Iowa, in this May 16, 2025, photo. (Sgt. Brent Newton/U.S. Amy via AP)
This image provided by the U.S. Army shows Capt. Cody Khork, 35, of Lakeland, Fla., in this May 16, 2025, photo. (Sgt. Brent Newton/U.S. Amy via AP)
This image provided by the U.S. Army shows Sgt. 1st Class Noah Tietjens, 42, of Bellevue, Neb., in this May 16, 2025, photo. (Sgt. Brent Newton/U.S. Amy via AP)
This image provided by the U.S. Army shows Sgt. 1st Class Nicole Amor, 39, of White Bear Lake, Minn., in this May 16, 2025, photo. (Sgt. Brent Newton/U.S. Amy via AP)
Andrew Coady and his daughter Keira, right, talk about his son, Sgt. Declan Coady, 20, of West Des Moines, Iowa, outside their home, Tuesday, March 3, 2026, in West Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Keira Coady holds a photo of her brother, Sgt. Declan Coady, 20, of West Des Moines, Iowa, outside her home, Tuesday, March 3, 2026, in West Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Keira Coady talks about her brother, Sgt. Declan Coady, 20, of West Des Moines, Iowa, outside her home, Tuesday, March 3, 2026, in West Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
