Rory McIlroy has urged golf’s decision-makers to bring the peace deal between existing tours and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund to fruition. McIlroy has also offered much-needed backing to the PGA Tour’s commissioner, Jay Monahan.
A resolution between the sport’s establishment and the PIF – which funds the LIV Golf Series – appears no closer, nine months after a framework agreement was signed. LIV golfers are therefore notable absentees as the PGA Tour’s flagship event, the Players Championship, gets under way at Sawgrass.
When asked whether he wants “the train to slow down a little bit” owing to chaos in elite golf, McIlroy said: “I want the train to speed up so we can get this thing over and done with.
“I think some of the reaction to 6 June was warranted but at this point it’s 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.”
Monahan has found himself in the firing line of Tour members. Xander Schauffele, the world No 6, said on Tuesday that Monahan has “a long way to go” to earn the trust of golfers. McIlroy takes an opposing view. “You look at what Jay has done since he took over,” said the Northern Irishman, “the media rights deal, navigating us through Covid, the strategic alliance with the DP World Tour. Creating PGA Tour Enterprises; we were just able to accept $1.5bn in the business. People can nitpick 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 stepped down from the PGA Tour’s policy board in November. PGA Tour Enterprises now has its own board of directors, which McIlroy admits he could become involved with. “You’ve got two boards on Tour,” the 34-year-old said. “One is really a business board and their priority is growing the business of the PGA Tour. And then the policy board, which I was on, was about making rules and slow play and whatever else.
“The business board to me would be something … if an opportunity came along in the future and I felt like it was the right time, would maybe be something that I would like to get involved in again.”
