Golf spent the week drafting exit terms. One set came from a tour, one went to a bankruptcy court, and Jon Rahm signed the second. Elsewhere, a referee kept his red card in his pocket and a hearing officer halved a ban.
The ruling: the DP World Tour shuts its door, and Jon Rahm walks out of LIV
On Monday Guy Kinnings, chief executive of the DP World Tour, told BBC Sport that any golfer who signs for the relaunched LIV Golf next season will not be allowed membership of the European circuit (Reuters; Golf Monthly). For the last few seasons the tour had handed some LIV players conditional releases to play both. That arrangement ends with 2026. "Players need to make a choice," Kinnings said (Gulf News, carrying BBC Sport; Golf Digest).
Applications for 2027 membership close on 16 November (Gulf News; Golf Digest), and membership is the entry ticket to the Ryder Cup at Adare Manor next September (Reuters; Golf.com).
The tour is not picking a fight with a healthy rival. LIV filed for Chapter 11 protection on 8 September after Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund withdrew its backing (Reuters; AFP). Court documents put its liabilities between $500 million and $1 billion (AFP; Gulf News). A potential $300 million from BC Partners Credit is meant to carry it into a "LIV 2.0" next year (AFP; Gulf News).
On 7 October Jon Rahm's lawyer, John Beck, told the US Bankruptcy Court in New Jersey that his client had reviewed the LIV 2.0 terms and found them "unacceptable" (AFP; Gulf News). A week later the separation agreement arrived. Rahm owes the league no further service, is not bound by its rules and may join any tour without its consent, and he gets his name, image and likeness rights back (Associated Press; ESPN). The agreement mentions no payment to him (Associated Press; ESPN).
So a two-time major champion who left the PGA Tour for LIV in December 2023 (Associated Press; ESPN) has now negotiated his way out for the right to use his own face. He walks away from the money, and LIV loses a star whose retention AFP described as widely seen to be critical to the relaunch.
Judge Michael Kaplan hears the agreement on 5 November (Associated Press; ESPN). Eleven days later, the DP World Tour stops taking names.
The number: 6 points from 6
Manchester United took six points from their first six Premier League games, their worst start to a league season since 1986 (Gulf News; Sports Illustrated, citing Squawka). The sixth was a 1-1 draw with ten-man Tottenham Hotspur at Old Trafford, settled by Dominic Solanke's header in stoppage time (Irish Examiner; Gulf News).
In 1986 the board ran out of patience by November, sacked Ron Atkinson and brought in Alex Ferguson from Aberdeen (Asharq Al-Awsat; Balls.ie). This board has Leeds United at Elland Road today, and it is only October.
The call: Morgan Rogers, James Garner and a red card that never came out
Just before half-time in Everton 0-2 Chelsea on Saturday, Morgan Rogers went into a challenge with James Garner and caught him with his studs (Sky Sports; ESPN). Paul Tierney kept him on the pitch and VAR did not send the referee to the monitor (Sky Sports; ESPN).
Mike Dean, the former Premier League referee, said on Soccer Saturday that Rogers should have been sent off (Sky Sports; Yahoo Sports).
Law 12 of the IFAB Laws of the Game reads:
"A tackle or challenge that endangers the safety of an opponent or uses excessive force or brutality must be sanctioned as serious foul play."
Read one way, studs on a knee endanger an opponent, whatever the intent, and the law asks nothing more. Read the other way, both players were committed to the ball, the contact was glancing, and VAR exists to fix clear errors rather than to referee the match again from a different chair.
Red card or not?
Around the grounds
Football. Lisandro Martinez apologised on Thursday, two days after blaming the club's leadership for Manchester United's defeat in Madrid. "Today I met with the club's leadership and the manager," he wrote on Instagram, calling it "a very positive conversation" (Reuters, via Al Jazeera; The Independent). The club considers the matter closed (Reuters; The Independent). "With this situation now behind us, we are fully focused on winning together," he added. Today brings Leeds United at Elland Road, and the result will be on our scores page.
NFL. One superficial blood clot, in the calf, and no timetable for the quarterback of the Philadelphia Eagles. The club ruled Jalen Hurts out of Sunday's game away to the Carolina Panthers after a scan found it (Associated Press; Newsweek). The team has given no date for his return (Associated Press; Newsweek). For now his return date belongs to the scans.
F1. Where is Formula 1's next new race? Bugesera in Rwanda, about 40 kilometres south of Kigali, under a ten-year deal announced on Tuesday with President Paul Kagame, Stefano Domenicali and FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem in the room (Al Jazeera; Autosport). When? The early 2030s, once the circuit is built (Al Jazeera; Autosport). The last African Grand Prix was at Kyalami in 1993, and Alain Prost won it (Khaleej Times; Al Jazeera).
Tennis. Gael Monfils appears to have retired without saying so. The International Tennis Integrity Agency confirmed that he is on its retired list, which rules him out of tournaments for six months (AFP; Associated Press). That also ends the farewell he had been expected to take at the Paris Masters in Bercy in November (AFP; Associated Press). He has made no public statement himself (AFP; Associated Press). For a player who made performing part of the job, it is an oddly silent exit.
Golf. Three back operations since 2023. Will Zalatoris, 30, says he will have spinal fusion surgery next month and will not play at all in 2027 (ESPN; Golf Monthly). He plans to play the Austin Championship from 12 to 15 November first (ESPN; GolfMagic). He described the last stretch as "four years of hell" (Golf Monthly; GolfMagic). Nobody should begrudge him the year.
NBA. When will the New York Knicks talk contract with Karl-Anthony Towns? Later in the season. The club said on 9 October that it was tabling extension talks with Towns and Josh Hart to concentrate on the start of the season (ABC7 New York; GMA News). Both play this season on the deals they already have, so nothing changes on the court yet.
WNBA. 68-64, and nobody scored easily. The Golden State Valkyries took Game 1 of the WNBA Finals from the Atlanta Dream at Chase Center on Saturday (WNBA.com; ESPN). Gabby Williams scored 26 for Golden State (Yahoo Sports; Golden State Valkyries). It was the Valkyries' first win in their first Finals appearance (ESPN; CBS Sports). Game 2 is Monday night, again at Chase Center in San Francisco (WNBA.com; ESPN).
The argument: should a punch after the whistle cost one game or two?
Our last question, whether Aston Martin should have kept Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll, has had nothing since to settle it, so it stays open.
This week's starts with a fact. The NFL suspended Los Angeles Rams lineman Alaric Jackson for two games for punching Nick Chubb of the Buffalo Bills after the Bills' overtime win. On appeal, hearing officer Derrick Brooks, appointed jointly by the NFL and the players' union, cut it to one (Associated Press; ESPN). Jackson misses Sunday's game against Arizona and is eligible again on 25 October (Associated Press; ESPN).
One side: a punch thrown once the game is over is exactly what a firm ban exists to stop, and halving it tells the next player the price is negotiable. The other: appeals exist to change outcomes, and a hearing officer appointed by both sides is there to weigh again what the league weighed first.
One game or two, and why?
One from the archive
Twenty-nine years ago this month, at Jerez on 26 October 1997, Michael Schumacher turned into Jacques Villeneuve while defending the lead of the race that decided the championship. Villeneuve finished, and took the title.
In November the FIA World Motor Sport Council ruled the move "deliberate but not premeditated" and excluded Schumacher from the 1997 championship standings, while leaving his wins on the record (grandprix.com; Atlas F1). It considered a ban for 1998 and rejected it (grandprix.com; Crash.net).
Paul Tierney faced a smaller version of the same problem on Saturday, weighing what happened against what was meant. In 1997 the council settled on deliberate, and still let the wins stand.
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