Rory McIlroy gives shock Saudi merger thumbs up but 'still hates LIV Golf'

Rory McIlroy said he felt like a “sacrificial lamb” after news of golf’s shock merger between the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund was broken to him just ahead of it being made public on Tuesday.

Defending champion Rory McIlroy speaks to the media ahead of the RBC Canadian Open at Oakdale Golf and Country Club in Toronto. Picture: Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images.

Speaking in a press conference ahead of his RBC Canadian Open title defence in Toronto this week, the man who’d effectively acted as the PGA Tour’s spokesman over the past year in LIV Golf-related matters reiterated exactly where he stands about that. “I still hate LIV,” declared McIlroy of Greg Norman’s breakaway circuit, which was launched a year ago at Centurion Club near St Albans. “Like, I hate LIV. Like, I hope it goes away. And I would fully expect that it does.”

He’s quietly confident about that transpiring because, contrary to what may have been portrayed in how the sensational end to golf’s civil war was widely reported, the PGA Tour and DP World Tour have not merged directly with LIV Golf but formed a new commercial entity with the Public Investment Fund (PIF). “I think that's where the distinction here is,” added McIlroy. “This is the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour and the PIF. Very different from LIV.”

It’s right to point out, of course, that the PIF provided the vast sums of money that lured the likes of Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau to the rebel circuit, but, even though the timing if not the merger itself had come as a surprise to him, McIlroy believes the new arrangement to pump Saudi Arabia’s cash into golf will be good for the game in the long term.

“Yeah, so I got a text message on Monday night, I guess,” said the four-time major winner in reply to being asked when the news had been relayed to him and what his initial reaction had been to something that sent the golf world into a frenzy. "From (PGA Tour board member) Jimmy Dunne saying, ‘hey can I give you a call in the morning’. So Jimmy rang me at about 6:30 yesterday morning. We had a chat. Took me through the deal, structure of the deal. What it meant for us. What it meant for the DP World Tour.

“So, yeah, I learned about it pretty much at the same time everyone else did. And, yeah, it was a surprise. I knew there had been discussions going on in the background. I knew that lines of communication had been opened up. I obviously didn't expect it to happen as quickly as it did. But, from what I gather, the tour felt they were in a real position of strength coming off of the back of the DP World Tour winning their legal case (against LIV Golf players breaking regulations by teeing up in events without securing official releases) in London. It sort of weakened the other side's position.

“And they went in there, and the way Jimmy described it, ‘Rory, sometimes you got 280 (yards) over water, you just got to go for it’. And that's what they did. I think ultimately, when I try to remove myself from the situation and I look at the bigger picture and I look at 10 years down the line, I think ultimately this is going to be good for the game of professional golf. I think it unifies it and it secures its financial future.”

Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the PIF chief, will be chairman of the new entity, which has still to be named, but PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan will be the CEO. “If you look at how it's structured now, this new company sits above everything. So technically anyone that is involved with LIV now would answer to Jay. So the PGA Tour has control of everything,” observed McIlroy.

“And, whether you like it or not, the PIF was going to keep spending the money in golf. 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 would rather have them as a partner.”

Along with the likes of Jon Rahm, Justin Thomas and Collin Morikawa, McIlroy displayed fierce loyalty to the PGA Tour at a time when the circuit needed top players to be vocal as others jumped ship. Now, as they are being offered a path back to the circuit as very rich men indeed, it begs the question whether those who turned down LIV should be made whole financially.

Insisting he’d never received an offer, McIlroy said: “I mean, the simple answer is yes. The complex answer is how does that happen, right. And that's all a gray area and up in the air at the minute. But, yeah, 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. I see how this is better for the game of golf. There's no denying that. But, for me as an individual, yeah, I, there's just going to have to be conversations that are had.”

At a heated players’ meeting on Tuesday night, American Grayson Murray reportedly told McIlroy to “f*** off” as tensions boiled over. “People felt like they were in the dark about all this,” said the Northern Irishman. “Look, most of the gripes come from the guys that are, you know, trying to hold onto their cards.

“And they feel like things have already been taken away from them this year with the designated events and smaller fields and no cuts and weighted FedExCup points for the larger events with the stronger fields. So they were already feeling somewhat vulnerable. Then, whenever this news is brought about, there's only going to be one reaction to that. And I understand that. It's hard for me to relate to them fully because I’ve never been in that position, but I certainly empathise with their point of view.”

While acknowledging that the PGA Tour now working with the Saudis “sounds hypocritical” and has left him with “mixed emotions”, McIlroy seems happy enough for a reported $1 billion to be pumped into the game through the PIF being officially welcomed to take a seat at the table with the game’s two main traditional tours.

“I've come to terms with it,” he said. I see what's happened in other sports. I see what's happened in other businesses. And, honestly, I've just resigned myself to the fact that this is what's going to happen. It's very hard to keep up with people that have more money than anyone else. If they want to put that money into the game of golf, then why don't we partner with them and make sure that it's done in the right way.”