Rory McIlroy has fired a warning at his fellow professionals over their career prospects if they choose to join the proposed Saudi-backed Golf Super League.
The Northern Irishman wittily referred to the planned breakaway tour as the "not-so-Super League" as he discussed the topic in a press conference ahead of the Genesis Invitational.
The planned tour will be controversially financed by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund, with golf legend Greg Norman acting as the face of the operation.
The world's top players are being courted by those behind the scheme, as "pretty much every player in the top 100 in the world" has been approached.
Some have been offered eye-watering amounts to ditch the PGA Tour and DP World Tour, with a £1.5bn pot of cash being made available to tempt stars into signing up for the rebel Super League.
McIlroy has voiced his opposition to such a proposal on numerous occasions in the past, and was quick to make his feelings clear again as the topic was brought up again by reporters.
After making his "not-so-Super League" quip, he was asked if he was curious to see whether other, younger players might be tempted by a mammoth cash offer.
"I don't know if I'm curious, but I guess I'm intrigued who would... certainly for the younger guys it just seems a massive risk," he replied.
"I can maybe make sense of it for the guys that are getting to the latter stages of their career, for sure. I don't think that's what a rival golf league is really going to want, is it? They don't want some sort of league that's like a pre-Champions Tour.
"I understand the financial part of it for guys that are later on in their career. You look at the people that have already said no – [Jon] Rahm, number one in the world, Collin Morikawa, myself.
"Like you've got the top players in the world are saying no, so that has to tell you something."
McIlroy has previously shared his belief that such a tour, which would see players given huge sums of money simply for playing, not just as prize money, would remove the competitive element and wouldn't inspire players to produce their best golf.
"It's the competitive integrity to me that's one of the biggest issues here, right," he said.
"Even when I started to get appearance fees back in 2009 or whatever, I struggled with that, going to tournaments in Korea and Japan feeling like I had already won before I teed it up.
"I had to get over that mental battle of that."
