Shane Lowry during the 2023 Ryder Cup. | Photo By Brendan Moran/Getty Images
Irishman Shane Lowry expressed his true feelings about Jon Rahm and those who defected to play for LIV Golf.
Shane Lowry is sick and tired of hearing players bolting to LIV Golf for the sake of ‘growing the game.’
In the wake of Jon Rahm’s departure to the Saudi-backed tour, the European Ryder Cup star revealed his true feelings about the state of professional golf with The Irish Independent.
“I think what [Rahm] said about growing the game and stuff. That’s obviously what they have to say,” Lowry said.
“They’ve signed on the dotted line. They’ve been told by the [LIV Golf] communications team that this is what you say when you’re asked this, and you have no other choice really because they own you now.”
Lowry’s comments about ‘owning you now’ come a week after Rahm made a public appearance in his native Spain. The two-time major champion admitted to being “under very strict instructions not to do public events,” according to Reuters.
LIV Golf’s beneficiary is the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), the sovereign wealth fund of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia allegedly forbids freedom of the press and controls the media. Hence the perception of Lowry saying that LIV Golf ‘owns you now.’ Freedom House, a non-profit advocacy group that supports global democracy, gave Saudi Arabia a 7/100 score on its ‘Freedom Scale,’ which measures the political freedom a country’s citizens have.
“Obviously, the past two years, there’s been a lot of evolving in the game of golf; things have changed a lot, and so have I,” Rahm said in the wake of his announcement.
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Jon Rahm at the DP World Tour Championship.
“Seeing the growth of LIV Golf, seeing the evolution of LIV Golf and innovation is something that has really captured my attention. I think the growth that I’ve seen and how it’s become a global business, right, and how we can impact golf globally, and in a much meaningful way, is something that’s been very enticing.”
These comments from Rahm on Dec. 7 elicited Lowry to make the comments he did.
But the Irishman continued to provide perspective on the current state of professional golf.
“I don’t know if [LIV Golf] has been dama,ging but people who have spent their hard-earned money, [who go] out to join a golf club, and buy golf clubs and play golf for the weekend, it’s tough for them to listen to the guy who’s already worth whatever say he has to do this to put food on the table for his wife and kids,” Lowry said.
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Shane Lowry celebrates Team Europe’s Ryder Cup win with his teammates.
Yet, despite these remarks, Lowry still feels Rahm should play on the Ryder Cup team. After all, the Europeans will need Rahm in 2025, when Bethpage Black awaits them.
“I am sure [Rahm] can play well enough to make the team,” Lowry said.
“So if he doesn’t resign his [DP World Tour] membership, he can still make the team.”
Ryder Cup legends Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter, and Lee Westwood resigned their DP World Tour memberships to join LIV Golf. That forbade them from representing Team Europe.
So, too, did Henrik Stenson, who was selected to captain the 2023 team. But after he joined LIV Golf, the DP World Tour replaced him with Luke Donald, who will lead the Europeans once again at Bethpage.
Nevertheless, at the end of the day, Lowry is most concerned about himself, his family, and his play.
“I just worry about my own game,” the 2019 Open Champion said.
“I try and win the best tournaments I can and compete in the best ones I can, and that’s really it.”
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.
