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UPDATED: Rory McIlroy has gone from being the harshest critic of LIV Golf to extending an olive branch, with defector Phil Mickelson calling for an end to “needless disdain” between PGA and LIV players.
McIlroy said on a British football podcast that he was too judgmental about players defecting and has accepted that LIV is “part of our sport now”, and referred to Jon Rahm’s decision to join LIV Golf last month as a “smart business move”.
McIlroy also suggested he helped instigate discussions with the PGA Tour and the Saudi backers of LIV Golf. He said he met with Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of the Public Investment Fund, at the end of 2022 in Dubai.
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“When I got back to America, I was on the board of the PGA Tour and I said to the guys, ‘Someone has got to go talk to this guy’. Then there was a plan put in place that one of the board members would try to develop a relationship with him,” McIlroy said.
He said on the Stick to Football podcast the surprise was how quickly a deal came together. Board member Jimmy Dunne and chairman Ed Herlihy arranged the first meeting after the Masters in April. The PGA Tour and PIF announced the agreement for a commercial deal on June 6.
The podcast was posted a day before the PGA Tour begins a new year that includes eight “signature events” with limited fields and A$29 million purses, a model that McIlroy helped orchestrate over the last year.
He resigned from the policy board in November, saying it was taking up too much of his time. The framework agreement missed its December 31 deadline to get finalised, and now the PGA Tour also is negotiating with a private group of US investors.
McIlroy referred to early defections to LIV as players wanting to take the easy way out and said that players were being duplicitous for pledging support and then taking the Saudi cash.
He had said no peace could be made as long as Greg Norman was in charge, and as recently as July said he “hates” LIV and hoped it went away.
“If LIV Golf was the last place to play golf on Earth, I would retire. That’s how I feel about it,” he said in July.
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His tone began to soften when Rahm, the Masters champion, became arguably the biggest name to leave because the 29-year-old Spaniard is entering the peak of his career.
“I think, at this point, I was maybe a little judgmental of the guys who went to LIV Golf at the start, and I think it was a bit of a mistake on my part because I now realise that not everyone is in my position or in Tiger Woods’ position,” McIlroy said on the podcast.
“We all turn professional to make a living playing the sports that we do, and I think that’s what I realised over the last two years. I can’t judge people for making that decision.”
McIlroy said his biggest beef was players leaving and speaking poorly about the PGA Tour or European tour because that’s what gave players their start in the game.
He also said the tour’s deal announced in June legitimised what LIV was trying to do and “made it easier for guys to jump”.
“Jon Rahm has not got any of the heat that the first guys got for going,” McIlroy said.
“I think Jon, he’s smart. And I think he sees things coming together at some point … I thought it was a smart business move. It was opportunistic.”
And because Rahm is exempt in all the majors for five years or more, McIlroy said, there was little risk of the Masters champion leaving.
“I have no problem with Jon going if that’s what he wants to do,” McIlroy said.
“Who am I to say different?”
McIlroy said while he didn’t feel he “lost the fight” against LIV, he had accepted that it was a part of the sport. He said if anything, the concept of LIV Golf had exposed a flaw in the tour system because the rival league guaranteed all its stars would be at tournaments.
After McIlroy’s comments about the flaws around the PGA tour, Mickelson expressed his belief that it wouldn’t have been easy to say for the 34-year-old.
With the Northern Irishman seemingly taking a softer side towards LIV Golf, Mickelson added it’s time for disputes between both parties to end.
“Let’s not use this as an opportunity to pile on,” he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“Rather, It’s time for me and others to let go of our hostilities and work towards a positive future.
“Rahms’ signing is turning into a bridge to bring both sides together, as evidenced by the many comments today and a month ago about changing the rules for the Ryder Cup so Jon and others can play, so let’s use it as such.
“Until an agreement is reached it will be business as usual for both sides but hopefully without the needless disdain.”
PGA Tour players can pick and choose where they play. McIlroy, for example, is the only eligible player not at Kapalua for the season-opening tournament. He says the PGA Tour is raising the cost to sponsor tournaments without being able to guarantee who will play.
Wells Fargo already has said it would no longer sponsor the signature event at Quail Hollow Club in North Carolina after this year.
“I can’t believe the PGA Tour has done so well for so long,” Fargo said.
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