Rory McIlroy has slammed Phil Mickelson for his comments regarding the proposed Golf Super League.
Supported by two-time champion of The Open Greg Norman, plans have been drawn up for a breakaway golf tour backed by the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund.
Mickelson took aim at the PGA Tour for “obnoxious greed” and explained why he would be open to competing in a breakaway league, despite Saudi Arabia's questionable human rights record and inhumane LGBTQ+ laws.
“They execute people over there for being gay,” Mickelson said. “Knowing all of this, why would I even consider it?
“Because this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape how the PGA Tour operates.”
Following his final round at the Genesis Invitational on Sunday, the Irishman responded to his fellow golfer’s claims and was unimpressed with the wording of his comments.
“I don’t want to kick someone while he’s down obviously, but I thought they were naive, selfish, egotistical, ignorant,” the four-time major winner added.
“A lot of words to describe that interaction he had. It was just very surprising and disappointing, sad.
“I’m sure he’s sitting at home sort of rethinking his position and where he goes from here.”
McIlroy was always wary of the new proposition, as were a large amount of his peers.
“I knew the way these guys have operated,” McIlroy said. “It’s all been smoke and mirrors.
“They’ve created rumours and spread rumours, tried to play one guy off another and said one thing to one manager and said a different thing to another manager... just sort of created this chaos and confusion around that group.
“Everyone’s questioning everyone else’s motives so they’re just kind of playing everyone off one another. I think it’s nice now that we all can sit down and say, look, we’re all on the same page here.”
Players have been offered eye-watering amounts to feature in the proposed Super League, with Ian Poulter reportedly offered £22million to participate, while Bryson DeChambeau received an eye-watering offer of £100million.
The new series is set to be announced in the near future and will be a direct rival to the existing PGA Tour and DP World Tour.
The reason why such huge sums are being offered is because any golfer who does decide to join the new super league risks never being allowed to play on the PGA Tour, European Tour or in the Ryder Cup again.
