PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Saying that the golf world is “sick of all the fighting,” Rory McIlroy again called for the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia to get a deal done as soon as possible.
“The more we go down this road, the more people will tune in just four times a year,” McIlroy said, referencing the four major championships.
McIlroy, who late last year gave up his seat on the PGA Tour Policy Board, spoke Wednesday morning at TPC Sawgrass, site of this week’s Players Championship, the tour’s flagship event.
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But again, most of the pre-tournament talk has been about the uneasiness in a game right now that is divided, with several past major champions such as Jon Rahm, Brooks Koepka, Cam Smith and Bryson DeChambeau not here because they are playing for the LIV Golf League.
“I want the train to speed up so we can get this over and done with,” McIlroy said of the proposed deal that was first announced as a framework agreement nine months ago.
PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan on Tuesday said he met with Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of the PIF who is also the director of LIV Golf and that “our negotiations are accelerating as we spend time together. While we have several key issues that we still need to work through, we have a shared vision to quiet the noise and unlock golf’s worldwide potential.”
Monahan gave no details other than to say “it is going to take time.” McIlroy’s paraphrased response: hurry up.
He pointed out that the ratings for this year’s signature events are not as good as they were in 2023, when the tournaments were called designated events and they had bigger fields.
With $20 million purses, top fields and 36-hole cuts only at three of the tournaments, the idea was to bring the best together more often. While that has happened, only Scottie Scheffler on Sunday winning the Arnold Palmer Invitational has been a big “name” winner.
U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark won at Pebble Beach in a weather-shortened event, and while Hideki Matsuyama is a worldwide star and a past Masters champion, his victory at the Genesis Invitational came when he was ranked outside of the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking.
But Scheffler’s win at Bay Hill on Sunday saw ratings down 32 percent on NBC from last year’s win by Kurt Kitayama, according to Sports Media Watch. It had 2,291,000 viewers. (LIV Golf had 228,000 for its tape-delayed final round of the LIV Hong Kong event.)
“I think they really worked last year,” McIlroy said. “If you look at the leaderboards, you look at the ratings, I felt like they really, really worked in 2023, and for whatever reason, they're not quite capturing the imagination this year compared to last year.
“I think, if I were to put my own perspective on it, I think it's because fans are fatigued of what's going on in the game, and I think we need to try to reengage the fan and reengage them in a way that the focus is on the play and not on talking about equity and all the rest of it.
“That's why I said, the sooner that this is resolved, I think it's going to be better for the game and better for everyone, the fans and the players.”
Monahan, who has been criticized for his handling of the situation—Xander Schauffele on Tuesday said again that he has work to do to regain trust—received McIlroy’s backing in handling the situation going forward and pointed out several of his accomplishments.
“You look at what Jay has done since he took over,” McIlroy said. “The media rights deal (which began in 2022), navigating us through COVID, the strategic alliance with the DP World Tour. I would say creating PGA Tour Enterprises, we were just able to accept a billion and a half dollars in the business, people can nit-pick and say he didn't do this right or didn't do that right, but if you actually step back and look at the bigger picture, I think the PGA Tour is in a far stronger position than when Jay took over.”
McIlroy said “some of the reaction to June 6th was warranted, but I think at this point it's eight months ago, and we all need to move on. We all need to sort of move forward and try to bring the game back together.”
