Rory McIlroy has grudgingly accepted the benefit of the PGA Tour having Saudi Arabia as a partner rather than an enemy.
McIlroy admitted he still harbours “mixed emotions” in the wake of the PGA Tour and DP World Tour striking a shock deal with Saudi’s Public Investment Fund to end golf’s civil war.
The PGA and DP Tours will still operate alongside the Saudi-backed rebel LIV Golf tour, but the Gulf State’s PIF will take control in a company that overarches all three entities.
McIlroy has been one of the strongest detractors of the LIV breakaway, remaining loyal to the PGA and even helping modernise the tour in recent months.
PGA Tour boss Jay Monahan and DP chief Keith Pelley have come under fire for throwing their lot in with the PIF, but McIlroy believes the new set-up could well benefit golf – but only in the long-run.
“Whether you like it or not the PIF are going to keep spending money in golf,” said McIlroy, speaking at the Canadian Open. “At least the PGA Tour now controls how that money is spent.
“If you think about one of the largest sovereign wealth funds in the world, would you rather have them as a partner or an enemy? At the end of the day money talks and you’d rather have them as a partner.”
McIlroy expects the PGA Tour to retain overall control of its own direction, even though Yasir Al-Rumayyan will become chairman of the new body set up to run three competitions.
“I think the one thing that I think was really misconstrued yesterday, all the headlines were PGA Tour merges with LIV, and LIV has got nothing to do with this,” said McIlroy.
“The PGA Tour, the DP World Tour and the Public Investment Fund are basically partnering to create a new company; I think that’s where I was a little frustrated.
“Because all I’ve wanted to do is protect and all I’ve wanted in the past year from basically this tournament is to protect the future of the PGA Tour, and to protect he aspirational nature of what the PGA Tour stands for. And I hope that this does that.
“But I think with the headlines being that this merges with LIV, if you look at the structure, the new company sits above everything. Jay is the CEO of that, so technically anyone involved with LIV now would answer to Jay, so the PGA Tour have control of everything.”
He added: “I still hate LIV. I hate LIV. I hope it goes away and I would fully expect that is does.”
McIlroy refused to defect to LIV despite gargantuan sums on offer to join the rival tour. The Northern Irishman has had no time for the LIV rebels, and has delivered regular withering criticism of those who stepped away from golf’s traditional competitions.
The 34-year-old previously branded LIV a “money grab”, while also criticising Phil Mickelson’s support of the rival faction as “naive, selfish, egotistical and ignorant”.
McIlroy confirmed he was caught as unawares as the wider public on golf’s new order, before accepting the new deal will cement the sport’s financial future.
“I learned about it pretty much about the same time as everyone else did,” said McIlroy.
“It was a surprise, I knew there had been discussions going on in the background, that lines of communication had been opened up, but I didn’t expect it to happen as quickly as it did.
"I still hate LIV, I hope it goes away"
— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) June 7, 2023
Rory McIlroy says the merger between PGA Tour, DP World Tour and LIV Golf 'is not LIV'... pic.twitter.com/9y0b4FOgT5
“I really think that from what I gather the tour felt it was in a position of strength coming off the back of the DP World Tour winning their legal case in London. It weakened the other side’s position.
“And they went in there, and the way Jimmy [Dunne] described it, he said ‘Rory, sometimes you’ve got 280 over water and you’ve just got to go for it’, and that’s what they did.
“Ultimately when I try to remove myself from the situation, and I look at the bigger picture, and I look at 10 years down the line, I think ultimately this is going to be good for the game of professional golf. I think it unifies it and it secures its financial future.
“There’s mixed emotions in there as well; I don’t understand all the intricacies of what’s gone on and there’s a lot of ambiguity and things to be thrashed out.
“But at least it means that the litigation goes away which has been a massive burden for everyone that’s involved with the tour and is playing the tour.
“And we can start to work toward some sort of way of unifying the game at the elite level.”
