Rory McIlroy doesn’t see ‘reunification’ of pro golf happening, urges LIV stars to pay fines in order to be Ryder Cup eligible

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Rory McIlroy can’t visualise a world where competing professional golf tours reunite.

The reigning Masters champion spoke with reporters after his Dubai Desert Classic pro-am at the Emirates Golf Club, site of this week’s DP World Tour Rolex Series opener. He canvassed topics from a potential reunification between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, whether Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton should pay their Ryder Cup fines and how McIlroy’s attitude could improve in 2026 after the greatest year of his career.

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Men’s professional golf is approaching three years since the June 6, 2023, framework agreement was announced between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf’s financiers, the Public Investment Fund. But LIV Golf has continued to sign PGA Tour pros such as recent recruits Thomas Detry and Ben An. Meanwhile, Brooks Koepka left LIV Golf to rejoin the PGA Tour following CEO Brian Rolapp’s creation of the Returning Member Program.

McIlroy, chasing a record fifth Dubai Desert Classic win this week, was quizzed whether a reunification of golf still matters, saying, “I think it matters; I would say that’s Solution A. But I just don’t see a world where it can happen at this point.”

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The 29-time PGA Tour winner was pressed on why.

“I just I don’t see a world where the two or three sides [tours] or whoever it is will give up enough,” McIlroy said. “For reunification to happen, every side is going to feel like they will have lost, whereas you really want every side to feel like they have won. I think they are just too far apart for that to happen.

“I definitely think the traditional tours, if you want to call them, have weathered the worst of the storm.”

For the first time, however, McIlroy put a number (10) on an optimal amount of tournaments where fans can see the world’s best golfers in the same field. Currently, that only happens at four major championships and select DP World Tour events.

“My opinion is that golf would be better served if all the best players in the world played together a little more often. We’re really only seeing that at the major championships,” McIlroy, 36, said. “But you’re talking about a handful of guys that are missing [out on], say, a Players Championship or some of the other bigger tournaments in the world. I’d like to see the best players play together maybe 10 times a year instead of four times a year.”

They come together at the Ryder Cup, too – 24 of the best European andAmerican golfers. Although now uncertainty surrounds two key members of theEuropean team: Hatton and Rahm. The duo’s move to LIV Golf in 2024 meant they accumulate fines for competing in tournaments which conflict with the DP World Tour, where both are members.

DP World Tour officials confirmed to Golf Digest in Dubai that the combined total of the fines for Rahm and Hatton was several million dollars. Rahm and Hatton appealed the fines in 2024, meaning they can continue playing on the DP World Tour – which runs the European team at the Ryder Cup – until there is a hearing for their appeals.

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McIlroy was asked if a simpler solution would be for Rahm and Hatton to pay their sanctions.

“Yeah, absolutely. This is my opinion. [leading up to the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black] we went really hard on the American [team] about being paid to play the Ryder Cup, and we also said that we would pay to play in Ryder Cups,” McIlroy said. “There are two guys that can prove it.”

McIlroy feels the DP World Tour sanctions are reasonable.

“I think any … any members’ organisation like this has a right to uphold its rules and regulations,” he said. “And what the DP World Tour are doing is upholding their rules and regulations and we, as members, sign a document at the start of every year, which has you agree to these rules and regulations, and the people that made the option to go to LIV knew what they were. So, I don’t see what’s wrong with that, I guess, is my opinion.”

McIlroy did talk about his own game, too. The World No.2 is teeing up for his second official tournament of 2026. Although the Dubai Desert Classic is the first elite field of the year. After a career-defining 2025 season – highlighted by wins at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Players Championship, Masters to complete the career Grand Slam, Irish Open and Ryder Cup – McIlroy is looking for ways to sustain his motivation levels.

“Yeah, I think I need to show up at tournaments with enthusiasm every single time; so [that means] playing in the places that I want to play and not feeling like I’m at a tournament because I’m obligated or have to be there but because I want to be there,” he said.

“I’ve been coming [to Dubai] for 20 years. You think about the amount of balls that I’ve hit and the amount of time I’ve spent on the range on my own. That starts to get tedious 20 years into a career. So it’s [all about] trying to find the joy in that. What I really found joy in [recently] at home is playing golf. I spend more time on the golf course than on the practice range nowadays.”

Because there are several career goals that remain.

“Yeah … [an] Olympic medal, Open at St Andrews, a US Open at one of those old, traditional golf courses whether it’s Shinnecock this year or Winged Foot or Pebble Beach, Merion,” McIlroy said when asked what was left to achieve.

McIlroy will launch his bid for such from the Dubai Desert Classic this week, where Hatton, Viktor Hovland, Tommy Fleetwood, Patrick Reed and Dustin Johnson are among the stars in the field.