Jon Rahm in contact with Luke Donald, but Ryder Cup wild card still uncertain

Rahm played a vital role in Europe's victory in Rome in 2023, going unbeaten in the four matches he played and earning three points. However, he subsequently joined LIV Golf, complicating his selection chances.

With LIV events currently not offering Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) points, Rahm is unlikely to qualify automatically and would need to rely on one of Donald's six captain's picks. The remaining six spots in the 12-man team will go to the top six players on the European points list.

"There's nothing I can confirm nor deny," Rahm said ahead of the latest LIV event in Chicago. "He [Donald] has been texting me like he has been texting quite a few other players that are on that list of the possibility of getting picked.

"Luke is extremely dedicated and very well organised as a captain - six automatic and then six picks, right - so there's probably about at least 10 names on top of those guys who are qualified that he's probably constantly texting.

"I don't think he's actually told anybody they're in yet because it's too early. He's probably waiting until the end of August through the [PGA Tour] Playoffs and our events to maybe start making statements like that.

"In my case, I think I'm just one more of those many names."

Rankings issues aside, it's highly unlikely that Donald would overlook Rahm for a place on the team.

Meanwhile, the Spaniard is hopeful that changes will be made to the LIV Golf format so that its players can earn OWGR points outside of the four majors each year.

OWGR has so far resisted calls to include LIV events, citing issues such as 54-hole formats, no cuts, and limited field sizes.

"There's a process to hopefully entering those world ranking points and at least get our foot in the door," Rahm added. "Once we're allowed, we can see what changes can be made to earn as many as possible, keeping the integrity of what LIV Golf is about.

"Examples of that would be, let's say with whatever we're doing currently we get 20 points. If you add a fourth round, you go to 25. Is that worth it, is that not worth it?

"Right now with as little players as we have, I don't see a cut working very well, and with the teams [format] I think it would be a little odd.

"But if the league were to expand and let's say you go to 15 teams, you have 60 players, now you can actually possibly make something work.

"There's many possibilities that I can think of; this is completely hypothetical because I haven't spoken to anybody about it, but there's things we could do I think to add more world rankings points if we need it."