Rory McIlroy, the strongest voice towards Saudi-funded LIV Golf that precipitated a lot disruption in golf, mentioned Wednesday he now looks like a “sacrificial lamb” with the beautiful reversal of the PGA Tour changing into companions with Saudi Arabia’s huge wealth fund.
It was McIlroy who helped lead a players-only assembly final August that reshaped the PGA Tour to fend off the problem of LIV Golf. He has been the loudest critic, a member of the tour’s coverage board. And he was among the many final to listen to the information shortly earlier than it broke.
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“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,” McIlroy mentioned on the RBC Canadian Open, the place he’s the two-time defending champion.
“Again, removing myself from the situation, I see how this is better for the game of golf. There’s no denying that,” he mentioned, “But for me as an individual, yeah, there’s just going to have to be conversations that are had.”
McIlroy was within the participant assembly Tuesday afternoon the place PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan confronted heavy criticism from members who questioned why the tour is taking cash from the Public Funding Fund and why they weren’t made conscious.
However the four-time main champion additionally felt resigned that Saudi Arabia was going to proceed investing in golf, and that making an enemy a minority investor would assist in the long term.
“I see what’s happened in other sports. I see what’s happened in other businesses,” he mentioned. “It’s very hard to keep up with people that have more money than anyone else. And again, 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. And that’s sort of where my head’s at.”
McIlroy pushed again towards the concept the PGA Tour is merging with LIV Golf. Nonetheless to be decided is the very way forward for LIV Golf, the rival league that Greg Norman runs that paid signing bonuses of $100 million or extra to lure gamers, after which supplied $25 million purses to 48-man fields with no minimize over 54 holes.
The settlement — nonetheless not finalized — is for the PGA Tour, the European tour and the Public Funding Fund to merge industrial companies. One in all PIF’s companies is LIV Golf, which primarily will probably be beneath the management of the brand new firm that also doesn’t have a reputation.
“I still hate LIV — like, I hate LIV,” McIlroy mentioned. “I hope it goes away. And I would fully expect that it does. And I think that’s where the distinction here is.”
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Monahan is the CEO of the brand new firm. Yasir al-Rumayyan, the PIF governor, would be the chairman. Additionally a part of that board will probably be Jimmy Dunne and Ed Herlihy, the 2 PGA Tour board members who introduced Monahan and al-Rumayyan collectively.
“So technically anyone that is involved with LIV now would answer to Jay,” McIlroy mentioned.
Monahan went on the Golf Channel forward of the Canadian Open and referred to the settlement as “a great day, something that will bear itself out” over time.
However he conceded the “suddenness is a shock to the membership,” which he mentioned was a setback that might solely be healed by speaking to the gamers and explaining the brand new path.
“I don’t expect everybody to understand it right off the bat,” Monahan mentioned.
McIlroy mentioned he felt the tour’s future was brighter as an entire. The important thing level going ahead is how the tour handles the return of gamers who defected to LIV Golf — 11 of them, together with Phil Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau, sued the tour over antitrust violations.
These lawsuits are being dismissed as a part of the settlement.
“That’s where the anger comes from. And I understand that,” McIlroy mentioned. “There nonetheless needs to be penalties to actions. The those that left the PGA Tour irreparably harmed this tour, began litigation towards it. We are able to’t simply welcome them again in. That’s not going to occur.
“I think that was the one thing that Jay was trying to get across yesterday is, ‘Guys, we’re not just going to bring these guys back in and pretend like nothing’s happened.’”
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The division has price McIlroy longtime friendships, corresponding to Sergio Garcia. He mentioned all he needed was to guard the way forward for the PGA Tour, and he hopes this settlement takes care of that.
McIlroy mentioned LIV Golf by no means made him a proposal as a result of he was clear from the beginning he wasn’t going wherever.
“Whether you like it or not, the PIF were going to keep spending the money in golf. At least the PGA Tour now controls how that money is spent,” he mentioned. “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.”
The Related Press contributed to this text.
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