Rory McIlroy said he sees how "having a diminished PGA Tour and having a diminished LIV tour or anything else is bad for both parties"Getty Images
PGA Tour player Rory McIlroy said that the men’s professional game that became bifurcated by LIV Golf’s inception in 2022 “must reassemble” and that players who left the PGA Tour for LIV and subsequently were suspended by the tour “should be allowed to return without penalty,” according to Dave Shedloski of GOLF DIGEST. Ahead of this week’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, McIlroy said, “Guys made choices to go and play LIV, guys made choices to stay here. If people still have eligibility on this tour and they want to come back and play or you want to try and do something, let them come back. I think it's hard to punish people.” He added, “Obviously I've changed my tune on that because I see where golf is, and I see that having a diminished PGA Tour and having a diminished LIV tour or anything else is bad for both parties.” McIlroy: “I'm here to just try -- especially when I was at the board level -- to give them the full picture of where things are at and hopefully where things are going to go. ... But at the end of the day, I think I'm done with trying to change people's minds and trying to get them to see things a certain way or try to see things through my lens because that's ultimately not the way the world works.” McIlroy said that he “had regrets about the plan that emerged from the player meeting in Delaware” during the BMW 2022 Championship. He added that the concept “was a good one” -- to ensure the participation of top players in certain events, however it “weakened” the tour’s financial position, “forcing its hand to seek a truce with PIF and seek out other sources of investment” (GOLF DIGEST, 1/30).
COMING TO A HEAD: GOLFCHANNEL.com’s Rex Hoggard wrote the “speculation” at Pebble Beach and this week’s signature event is that the Tour is “closing in on a deal with Strategic Sports Group.” McIlroy said he “just hope[s] they get [a deal] done.” He added that the PGA Tour Policy board was “supposed to vote on [the deal between the Tour and SSG] Sunday night and there was a delay” and they were “supposed to vote on it last night and there was a delay.” McIlroy added, “I feel like this thing could have been over and done with months ago. I think just for all of our sakes that the sooner that we sort of get out of it and we have a path forward, the better” (GOLFCHANNEL.com, 1/30).
CONTINUING TO INVESTIGATE: Hoggard in a separate piece noted that while negotiations between the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s PIF may be ongoing, that “won’t slow the U.S. Senate’s inquiry into the potential deal.” In July, the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations held two hearings on the potential deal that would combine the Tour, DP World Tour and LIV Golf, which is owned by the PIF, under a new, for-profit entity called PGA Tour Enterprises. On Monday, senators sent a letter to PIF’s governor informing him “the Subcommittee intends to continue to pursue its inquiry [into the potential deal]” (GOLFCHANNEL.com, 1/30).
AN UNLEASHED OPINION: SI’s Alex Miceli wrote, for almost two years McIlroy “provided advice and seemingly drank the Kool-Aid of the PGA Tour and its fight against LIV Golf,” at times being “essentially the Tour's spokesperson against the Saudi-backed circuit.” But when it “became clear he would not be able to create the changes he’d hoped for,” McIlroy resigned his position and “became a full-time golfer again.” Now, McIlroy is “free to express his unvarnished opinions and provide advice about the world of professional golf.” Miceli noted that McIlroy is “not only playing better golf,” but “advising his friends from a viewpoint he didn’t have just a year ago.” McIlroy “knows that over the last three years a lot of mistakes have been made, money wasted, and uneducated answers offered to complex problems.” Miceli added that McIlroy spoke with both Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton before they left for LIV Golf. (SI, 1/30).
