Rory McIlroy is in action for the first time since the PGA Championship at this week’s RBC Canadian Open.
The tournament is likely to take place in a less uncertain atmosphere than greeted the 2023 edition, which came soon after news broke that the PGA Tour had begun negotiations with the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) behind LIV Golf over a way for the two entities to coexist.
That news came after a year of division at the top of the game, where McIlroy became one of the biggest defenders of the PGA Tour amid the LIV Golf threat.
While talks are still ongoing between the PGA Tour and PIF, cooler heads have prevailed over the last year and, ahead of this week's tournament, McIlroy reflected on his involvement in golf’s civil war and admitted he’d become too “deeply involved.”
“I think, in hindsight, I wish I hadn't have gotten involved or not hadn't gotten involved, hadn't have gotten as deeply involved in it, and I've articulated that," he explained. "I hold no grudge, I hold no resentment over the guys that chose to go and play on LIV. Everyone's got their own decisions to make and everyone is, has the right to make those decisions.”
While McIlroy regrets the extent of his involvement, he admitted his biggest concern since the emergence of LIV Golf two years ago is the damage it has done to the men’s elite game in general.
He continued: “My whole thing is I'm just disappointed to what it's done to, not to the game of golf, the game of golf will be fine, but men's professional golf and this sort of divide we have at the minute.”
More recently, McIlroy has taken a far more lenient stance against the possibility of LIV golfers ultimately returning to the PGA Tour. Most notably, in January, he admitted he had “changed my tune” on the issue and said: “Let them come back.”
Since then, he’s also offered to return to the PGA Tour policy board to try and get a deal over the line, although that ultimately didn’t come to fruition. With the anniversary of the announcement coming in just one week, some have questioned whether an agreement will ever be reached, but McIlroy remains optimistic.
He said: “Hopefully, we're on a path to sorting that out and getting that to come back together."
Still, he reiterated that, whatever the outcome, he shouldn’t have been as involved. “Yeah, I mean, in hindsight, hindsight's always 20/20,” he added. “But in hindsight I wish I hadn't have gotten as deeply involved as I have.”
Back to matters on the course, McIlroy has been in excellent form in recent weeks, including wins at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans and Wells Fargo Championship. He then finished T12 at the PGA Championship before taking some time off.
This week, McIlroy is looking to win his third RBC Canadian Open title, and with plenty more action on the horizon, including the US Open in two weeks, he admitted the break had come at a good time.
“I needed that reset,” he said. “I'm playing four weeks in a row here, so, yeah, I'm ready to go, but, yeah, it's been a busy stretch and I'm sort of easing my way back into it.
“I probably hit a grand total of probably 150 balls last week. So, not that I feel rusty, I feel like I've played enough golf to keep myself taken over, but, yeah, last week was a good week to just reset and sort of start again.”
