(Toronto) Rory McIlroy is once again in the eye of the hurricane.
McIlroy was one of the LIV Tour’s most vocal critics throughout the year, being something of a spokesperson for men’s professional golf as the PGA Tour battled him in the media and in theaters. of hearing.
The PGA, however, announced on Tuesday that it has reached an agreement with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), which owns the LIV circuit, to create a new unified global circuit that will also incorporate its European branches.
McIlroy, 34, spoke on the sidelines of the Canadian Open on Wednesday, where he will be chasing a third consecutive title. During his 20-minute press conference, he only answered one question about defending his title on home soil.
“I have a hard time sitting here and not feeling like I’ve been sacrificed on the altar, not feeling like I’ve been used with the result that we know,” said the Northern Irishman at Oakdale Golf and Country Club, located in the suburbs of Toronto.
Founded in 2021, the LIV Tour aimed to shake up the traditional structure of men’s professional golf, including offering highly lucrative contracts to some of the sport’s headliners. The competitions were to take place by team, and offer a more relaxed atmosphere than the more conformist PGA tournaments.
Dustin Johnson, Sergio Garcia, Martin Kaymer, Graeme McDowell, Louis Oosthuizen, Charl Schwartzel and Lee Westwood are among the headliners who have joined the LIV circuit. They also played their first tournament on this new circuit while the RBC Canadian Open was taking place simultaneously in 2022.
McIlroy was highly critical of the LIV Tour heading into last year’s Canadian Open, and he found himself in the spotlight again this time around, after the PGA announced its deal with the FIP.
“I’m sad for the Canadian Open,” he said. When you think about what happened last year, and then there was this bombshell (Tuesday).
“I’m sad because he (RBC) has been a good corporate partner and I find it unfair what’s happening to him for the second year in a row,” McIlroy continued.
Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the director of the PIF, will join the PGA Tour’s board of directors, which will continue to operate its tournaments. Al-Rumayyan will be the chairman of the new business group, while Monahan will be the chairman and chief operating officer. The PGA Tour, meanwhile, will be the largest shareholder in the new business entity.
Under this agreement, the parties drop all legal actions between them immediately.
But several questions remain unanswered.
It remains unclear how golfers such as Johnson and Brooks Koepka will be received on the PGA Tour. They had been suspended after announcing that they were joining the LIV circuit by accepting signing bonuses that would have reached up to 150 million US dollars.
“There must be consequences for their actions,” McIlroy noted. Players who left the PGA Tour caused it irreparable harm, and caused litigation.
“We can’t just welcome them with open arms. It’s not going to happen,” he assured.
It will also take time to heal the wounds caused by the LIV circuit and the subsequent merger with the PGA. Golfers and spectators have so far been very reserved about the new tour’s successes — at one point PGA Commissioner Jay Monahan said a deal with the FIP could never happen, simply out of respect for the bereaved families of September 11, 2001—and it is still unclear how they will manage to reconcile.
“Everyone was united against this entity, and now you are the partner of this entity,” McIlroy recalled. So, yeah, of course I understand. It’s hypocritical. It sounds hypocritical.
“Whether you like it or not, the FIP and the Saudis want to invest in golf. This is what they want, and they weren’t going to stop anytime soon. So how do you invest that money in golf, while doing it ethically? »
