Rory McIlroy has welcomed the newly announced merger between the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. McIlroy said he was “resigned” to the fact the Saudis are determined to spend money in golf and was relieved that the sport’s civil war is set to end. although he stressed that he ”still hates LIV Golf” and insists the players who defected to the breakaway league should face consequences.
Litigation between the parties ended after they resolved to work together under a new, yet-to-be-named entity which will oversee elite golf. The PGA Tour will hold majority control of the sport’s new boardroom while enjoying significant investment from PIF, whose head Yasir Al-Rumayyan will take his place as chairman of the new company.
“Whether you like it or not, the PIF are going to keep spending money in golf,” McIlroy told a packed press conference at the Canadian Open. “I see what’s happened in other sports, I see what’s happened in other businesses. I’ve just resigned myself to it.
“At least the PGA Tour now controls how that money is spent. If you’re thinking about one of the biggest sovereign wealth funds in the world, would you rather have them as a partner or an enemy? At the end of the day, money talks, and you’d rather have them as a partner.”
McIlroy, who doggedly defended the PGA Tour throughout the crisis, was told about the news on Tuesday morning only hours before the PGA’s statement. He believes golf will be better off with the PIF’s investment working inside the existing structure of the game, rather than fighting against it as it has been over the past two years.
“It’s hard for me to not sit up here and feel somewhat like a sacrificial lamb and feeling like I’ve put myself out there and this is what happens ... Ultimately when I look at the bigger picture, 10 years down the line, it’s going to be good for the game of professional golf. It secures its financial future.”
The world No 3 turned down a vast offer to sign for the PIF’s rival tour, LIV Golf, and has been a staunch critic of the competition. But he stressed that it is not LIV but the PIF which is merging with the PGA Tour to form a new company, and while the struggling LIV is likely to continue in the short term, its days may be numbered.
“I still hate LIV! I hate LIV,” he said. “I hope it goes away and I fully expect that it does. Going forward there may be a team element and you’re going to see whoever else play in some sort of team golf, but I don’t think it will look anything like LIV has looked and I think that’s a good thing.”
McIlroy added: “There’s mixed emotions. I don’t understand all the intricacies. But at least it means the litigation goes away. We can start to work toward some sort of way of unifying the game at the elite level.”
And the Northern Irishman believes there should still be consequences for the defectors who left the PGA Tour for LIV, rather than simply welcoming them back with open arms, punishment-free.
“What that looks like for individual players in terms of keeping a tour card, bringing players back into the fold and then that sacrifices other people, that’s where the anger comes from. And I understand that,” he explained.
“There still has to be consequences to actions. The people that left the PGA Tour irreparably harmed this tour, started litigation against it. We can’t just welcome them back in. That’s not going to happen.”
