Rory McIlroy shot a 2-under 69 at the Genesis Invitational on Saturday, but remains well off the pace set by Patrick Cantlay.
But instead of talking about a pedestrian third round, McIlroy continued to share his vision for the future of professional golf.
McIlroy, who supports Manchester United, likened his idea to the UEFA Champions League. The competition invites Europe’s best soccer teams from each of the continent’s leagues to compete for the title.
“It will be one tour. I think we will organize a tour for the top 80 players in the world,” McIlroy explained.
“Everything is affected by it. The way I look at it, it’s like the Champions League of European football. It sits above the other leagues and then all those leagues feed into it and the Champions League The way I think about it is for the best players in the league to play against each other.”
Teams from England, Spain, Germany and all other countries within Europe are invited to participate in the Champions League. The number of teams invited from each league corresponds to the overall strength of the league. Therefore, England’s Premier League, La Liga and Bundesliga send the most teams, with four, due to their strong pedigree.
Under McIlroy’s vision, the same would apply to golf. The best players from the PGA Tour, DP World Tour, LIV Golf and perhaps the Asian Tour and South Africa’s Sunshine Tour will be joining this new global tour. A formula can then be established to determine how many players from each circuit can participate in this new tour.
Additionally, with all these tours involved, tournaments are held all over the world.
“There’s always going to be Australia, South Africa in the southern hemisphere. There’s always going to be elements of the Far East, like South Korea, Japan and China. Obviously the Middle East as well,” McIlroy added.
“We’ve been going to the Middle East for a long time, obviously Dubai, Saudi Arabia.” [Arabia]They then head east to west, returning to the United States in the spring and summer. I don’t think it will be much different than it is now, but maybe the end of the year and the end of the year will look a little different. ”
In theory, the new tour could include events in the Far East and Middle East in January and February. Many top players like McIlroy begin their season in Dubai every January.
The tour will likely then head east, playing in Hong Kong, Malaysia or Australia in early February, before heading to the West Coast of the United States. The world’s top players can then move on to the WM Phoenix Open, Riviera, and then Florida in March.
“If you put together a 24-event schedule, four of them are major championships, so that’s 20 events,” McIlroy said.
“I think it’s 10 or 12. [take place in the United States]. This is the world’s largest golf market, so you have to take that into account. But there’s no reason why we can’t go further afield and play in these larger markets at other times of the year. I think it will benefit not only those markets and fans, but the Tour as a whole, media partners, sponsors and everyone else. ”
Jack Mirko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through.Be sure to check it out @_PlayingThrough Cover more golf. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko In the same way.
