Rory McIlroy is erring on the side of caution over the chances of men’s main golf circuits coming together in the near future.
The World No.3 played in the DP World Tour’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship last week, which included amateurs playing alongside the professionals.
McIlroy was in the same group as PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan in the second round of the event. Then, in the third round, he played alongside another of the key figures at the top of the men’s game, the governor of the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) behind LIV Golf, Yasir Al-Rumayyan. Those encounters came after Monahan and Al-Rumayyan were paired together in the first round.
However, in an interview with The Scotsman, he admitted that, despite the appearances of Monahan and Al-Rumayyan at the event causing a considerable stir, the subject of the future of the men’s game wasn’t discussed that much.
He said: “It was good to spend some time with all of them and sort of talk a little bit about the situation, the goings on in the game. But, in fairness, it probably wasn’t as much talk about it as you would have thought.”
It wasn’t just the presence of Monahan and Al-Rumayyan in Scotland that created headlines at the event. There were also 14 LIV golfers in the field, and McIlroy admitted the best players coming together doesn’t happen enough nowadays.
He added: “It’s good to get most people together in terms of like, look at the field, you’ve got a mix of everyone in there, which is good. It is something that we don’t see as often as we should, but, you know, time will tell.”
McIlroy then revealed he sees the chance of an agreement over PIF investment in the PGA Tour coming by the end of the year, but struck a more cautionary tone over a timeframe for determining how the circuits will coexist.
“I think by year’s end, whether the Public Investment Fund will invest in PGA Tour Enterprises, but that doesn’t solve the problem of where we find ourselves in golf, the schedule and everything,” he explained.
“I mean, I’d say we’ll know by the end of the year whether that’s a possibility or not, but I think all tours are going to keep trucking along and doing their own thing for the foreseeable future and I think the best thing we can maybe hope for is a bit of crossover between them and then maybe while that is happening over that period of time, whether it be one year, two years, three years, just trying to figure out the rest.”
Much of the credit for tournament bringing some of the big names in men’s elite golf back together went to Alfred Dunhill Links' main backer, Richemont, which is chaired by South African billionaire, Johann Rupert.
Before the tournament, McIlroy spoke to BBC Sport Northern Ireland, where he admitted that move had been “a step in the right direction.”
He said: "I think what Johann Rupert, the man who runs this event, is trying to do is just bring the golf world back together a little bit. If we need to be forced together in some way, he’s trying to do that. I think it will be good. It’s certainly a step in the right direction."
While that may well be true, it appears that, for the moment at least, McIlroy isn’t convinced anything more formal is imminent to bring the main tours back together.
