Rory McIlroy on Ryder Cup
Rory McIlroy has given the clearest indication yet that he is ready to draw a line under his long-running feud with LIV Golf for the good of the sport, even though he once claimed that he would rather retire than play in the breakaway tour. The Northern Irish world No 2 is still on a high after helping Europe to regain the Ryder Cup from the USA in Rome earlier this month, in a competition that only included one player from LIV in either team – PGA Championship winner Brooks Keopka.
McIlroy’s objection to the Saudi-funded golf league saw him effectively emerge as the poster boy of the rival PGA Tour, but the sport was rocked to its foundations when it was announced in June that both tours, along with the DP World had worked out a ‘framework agreement’ that would effectively see the three parties merge to work alongside each other in harmony.
Little further detail has emerged since the bombshell announcement was made and British LIV star Ian Poulter recently claimed that Private Investment Fund (PIF) boss Yasir Al-Rumayyan had told him that the rebel tour would continue to “go on and on”.
But as uncertainty abounds as to which direction of travel the world of golf is about to take, McIlroy finally appears ready to make peace with a rival product that he has publicly slated repeatedly.
The four-time Major champion was in Austin, Texas on Sunday for the US Grand Prix, having recently made an investment of his own in the Alpine F1 Team.
Speaking about the future of his own sport, he told Yahoo Finance: “I’m hopeful that the PGA Tour and DP World Tour and the Public Investment Fund (owners of LIV golf) can come together and try to get some sort of a deal done, because to me, with a fractured competitive landscape, it just divides the eyeballs. I’d rather concentrate all the eyeballs on one product.
“To me it’s a product problem, and if we can all put our heads together and, and get to the point where the product is really good, I think it’s full steam ahead and, hopefully great things can happen.”
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McIlory’s call for unification is completely at odds with his previous comments about LIV Golf. In July (as per the Guardian) he said: “If LIV Golf was the last place to play golf on earth I would retire. That’s how I feel about it.”
Shortly after PGA Tour boss Jay Monaghan revealed that the three tours were working on a merger deal, McIlroy said: “I still hate LIV. Like, I hate LIV.
“I hope it goes away and I would fully expect that it does,” before adding some balance by saying: “I look 10 years down the line, I think ultimately this is going to be good for the game of professional golf. It unifies it and it secures its financial future.”
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