Ryder Cup: Luke Donald breaks silence on Jon Rahm's bitter dispute with DPWT

European Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald says he views Jon Rahm's long-running dispute with the DP World Tour as "a bump in the road". 

Donald was appointed as the skipper for a third term on Wednesday and will go for an historic three-peat in the biennial dust-up with the United States next September. 

The Englishman was at the helm as Europe regained the Ryder Cup with an 16½-11½ victory in 2023 and masterminded their 15-13 away win last September at Bethpage Black. 

Barring injury, the 48-year-old will have one at least one talisman at Adare Manor in Rory McIlroy but whether or not he will have Rahm as his teammate remains to be seen. 

The Spaniard refuses to pay the fines he has racked up for competing in conflicting LIV Golf events on the DP World Tour's schedule. 

He has rejected a compromise offered by the European-based circuit, explaining that he feels "extorted" by the terms. 

McIlroy told reporters at Bay Hill ahead of the Arnold Palmer Invitational he believed the deal was fair as eight out of nine LIV Golf players accepted it. 

Donald, as you can imagine, remained diplomatic on the issue. 

"Well, first day on the job, so I haven’t talked to him yet but obviously I will talk to Jon," Donald said. 

"We have a great relationship, and he's been a tremendous teammate and player for me the last two Ryder Cups."

He continued: "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.

"There's 16, 17 months till we tee off. There's plenty of time.

"I think every time I've been captain, there's always challenges to overcome. So it's never a smooth road. There's always bumps in the road. 

"Obviously my plan and my hope is that Jon is available for that team.

"As I said, he's been a tremendous teammate, a tremendous player and has given us so much. But again, I'll have to have that conversation soon and see where his head is."

European Tour Group chief executive Guy Kinnings maintained the Tour is just "administering the rules that we have in place". 

He added: "We announced, I think it was 11, 12 days ago, the approach we were taking on conditional releases, which is a precedent we’ve set, and a number of the guys signed up and Jon didn't. That was his decision.

"As you can imagine, all we are looking to do is do what's best for the Tour as a whole, for the membership as a whole, and the arrangements we have struck will support the Tour.

"It will help improve the product, and that will lead to happier promotors, sponsors, broadcasters. It’s our job to deal with those rules that are in place and have been tested and proven to be fair, and that’s what we're doing."

Rahm has been an instrumental figure for Europe their last two victories. 

He made his debut in Paris in 2018 and beat Tiger Woods in the Sunday singles. 

He has amassed four appearances overall, with a record of 11-4-4. 

Rahm is particularly strong in the foursomes, with the two-time major champion currently undefeated in the format when partnered with Tyrrell Hatton.