Rory McIlroy says he has at least one regret about the ongoing PGA Tour vs. LIV Golf drama.
McIlroy, who has staunchly defended the PGA over the past few years following the LIV split, said he wished he had handled things differently.
“Looking back, I wish I hadn’t been involved, or I wish I hadn’t been involved, I wish I hadn’t been so heavily involved, and I made that very clear.” McIlroy said. According to Golf Monthly, ahead of the RBC Canadian Open, he struggled to find the right words to express his involvement in the inter-league issues.
“But looking back, I wish I hadn’t been so involved,” McIlroy admitted.
This stance was hinted at when McIlroy’s former agent, Andrew “Chubby” Chandler, said in February that McIlroy might consider an offer from LIV Golf.
“Rory is a guy who likes to voice his opinion but is happy to apologise for it, and he does,” Chandler said at the time, according to Bankard. “The irony is, you might say he’d be signing for around £750m. [around $950 million] He will be with LIV in a month because he has paved the way for LIV to be okay now.
McIlroy added this week that he was disappointed with the fallout from the split in professional golf, which has seen some of the industry’s top players move from the PGA to LIV.
“All I want to say is I’m disappointed with what’s happened to the sport of golf. I’m fine with the sport of golf, but I’m disappointed with men’s professional golf and this kind of division that we have at the moment,” he said.
McIlroy fiercely defended the PGA Tour during its 2021 separation period before the tour agreed to a framework for a merger with LIV last summer.
While many of his fellow golfers got rich off Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) money, McIlroy stayed on the tour even as his game declined.
But in January, McIlroy showed some openness, saying he would be open to letting LIV players return to the PGA if they wanted.
At the PGA Championship earlier this month, McIlory addressed Jimmy Dunn’s departure from the PGA Tour’s policy committee, acknowledging that it could be a major blow to ongoing merger talks.
“Honestly, if the PGA Tour is going to make this deal with PIF, I think it’s a huge loss. [the Saudi Public Investment Fund, which runs LIV] “Jimmy was basically the conduit between the PGA Tour and the PIF and trying to unify the game,” McIlroy told The Post’s Mark Cannizaro.
“It’s a real shame he hasn’t been involved for the last few months and I think that’s part of the reason why everything has stalled right now. It’s a real shame. I think the Tour is in an even worse situation because of it.”
“I would say up until last week, my confidence that anything was going to happen was at an all-time low. And then the news that Jimmy is stepping down and his relationship with the other side, the warmth from the other side, it worries me.”
It’s been an eventful month for the world number three golfer, who filed for divorce from his wife, Erica Stoll, saying their marriage has “irretrievably broken.”
The documents stated that the couple had signed a prenuptial agreement.
