[Photo: Eston Parker/ISI Photos]
Rory McIlroy once advocated for the PGA Tour to make a deal with Saudi Arabia in the throes of professional golf’s civil war. He’s now glad he was misguided.
“I can admit when I’m wrong,” McIlroy said overnight (Australian time) at the PGA Championship, “and that was one that I did get wrong.”
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For the better part of two years, McIlroy was the de facto advocate for the PGA Tour in the absence of public leadership. After commissioner Jay Monahan made a secret agreement with LIV Golf’s financial backers, McIlroy took a step back from the schism; though he still did not believe in the LIV product, he felt with the framework agreement already in place it was better for the sport to move forward. However, after a White House meeting that was supposed to consummate the PGA Tour–PIF deal early last year went sideways, the two sides stopped talking, and with new chief executive Brian Rolapp taking over tour operations, the PGA Tour had no appetite to revisit discussions.
At the moment, that appears to be the prudent move, as last month PIF pulled its funding from LIV Golf after haemorrhaging billions and failing to gain traction with the American golf populace. The move has left LIV with an ambiguous future, and as Golf Digest reported, several representatives for LIV players have already reached out to the tour about possibly coming back.
McIlroy was asked his thoughts about the matter at Aronimink Golf Club, and the back-to-back Masters champion said PIF leaving LIV high and dry was “always a possibility to happen”.
“Look, I think everyone knows like with everything that’s happening in the Middle East, that had a lot to do,” McIlroy said about the Iran War accelerating PIF’s decision, “but whenever you have funding tied so much to the geopolitical landscape in the world, that’s a tricky road to navigate.”
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The Ulsterman asserted that, in his estimation, it seemed like most in golf had an idea this could happen. Everyone except LIV players.
“I feel like a lot of us in this room, including me, we almost knew before the players did that this was going to happen. Like, I was hearing about this back in March, April time,” McIlroy said. “Look, I have friends over there. One of my best friends, Ricky [McCormick], caddies for Tom McKibbin, who’s over there, and I would talk to him all the time about what was going on. I was saying to Ricky, even before Mexico, ‘Have you guys heard any of this stuff?’ He was like, ‘No, everything seems OK over here.’
“It just feels like the rug was pulled from under their feet and everyone was sort of blindsided by it. But again, that’s the risk that those guys chose to take. As I said, it leaves, there’s a lot of uncertainty in the air right now.”
After postponing a New Orleans event due to heat and conflicting soccer games with the World Cup, there are only six LIV events left in the season. There are 11 LIV players in this week’s field, highlighted by Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau.
