Aptly everyone in the golf world – players, officials, bureaucrats, media, sponsors, fans – has finished chewing the large sports fracture. Except and until the powers in place meet together and discover a means towards reconciliation, there is no longer much to say. (“We are a bit like past the level of exhaustion”, Justin Thomas said earlier this weekDiscuss the PGA Tour-Liv Split.)
Credit Rory McILroy, then, for turning the conversation. McILroy has taken many shots at Liv Golf in the past three years, some of whom had to return. But an element of LIV's strategy hit a sensitive string to McILroy: the international concentration of the Breakaway League.
“My thing is that the golf remains where it is and is relevant, it must be … around the world, it is a calendar all year round,” said McILroy on Wednesday morning before the players' championship.
“Golf is not only played in America,” added McILroy. “It did not start in America. It is played in many other places in the world.”
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He noted that the main source of golf income is American – as in American societies – and that's a reason enough to keep a large part of the sport in the United States.
“But I think there is an opportunity to have some of the biggest tournaments outside of America,” he added. “I have always been a world player. I play all over the world. I start my year in the Middle East. I come here. I go to the United Kingdom. After the Fedexcup playoffs, I return to Europe and play four or five events.”
He specifically indicated Australia, which hosted by far the most popular event on the LIV calendar in Adelaide. The booming golf scenes in China and the Middle East could be a lucrative source of income and fandom in the years to come, and LIV – whatever its other faults – makes a strategic decision to address these markets.
Whatever the way it happens, McILroy has implicitly recognized that reunification must occur for the good of the game. He argued that the best players in the world, Liv and the PGA Tour, must play together “Once a month, if not more. I think that 12 times a year, or maybe a little more than that, I think that would be a good number.” The current number – four, the number of majors where the best in the world will meet – is simply not enough.
In a lighter vein, McILroy addressed a range of other subjects, including the emerging popularity of Youtube Golf: “I am not of this generation,” he said. “I prefer to watch this tournament on Saturday and Sunday rather than watching the Youtube golf course.”
About The injury of Tiger Woods which will probably cost him the major 2025 seasonMcILroy said: “It sucks. Yes, he is not very lucky regarding injuries and his body. … Hoping that he is in a good mood and hoping that he is doing well. We will obviously not see him playing golf this year, and I hope we may see him play in 2026.”
As for his own future, McILroy undoubtedly declared that he would never play on the senior golf circuit. “I will not play the Golf Champions Tour,” he said. “Listen, I said a lot of absolute in my time that I returned, but I don't plan to play the Golf des Champions.
He's competing this weekend in Sawgrass, going out Thursday at 1:29 p.m. Thursday alongside Xander Schauffele and the defending champion Scottie Scheffler.
