Rory McIlroy during the final round of the 2024 PGA Championship. | Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images
Ahead of this week’s RBC Canadian Open, Rory McIlroy spoke about his prior commitment to the PGA Tour amid the LIV Golf saga.
This week’s RBC Canadian Open represents a full-circle moment for the PGA Tour.
Last year, on Jun. 6, 2023, PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan and Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) Governor Yasir al-Rumayyan shockingly announced that they had struck a framework agreement, signaling an end to the divide between LIV Golf and the tour.
That bombshell announcement came on the Tuesday before the 2023 RBC Canadian Open, stunning players to their core.
The following day, Rory McIlroy, the defending champion at the time, admitted to feeling like a “sacrificial lamb.” For more than a year, McIlroy supported the PGA Tour’s cause while disparaging everything about LIV Golf. He even admitted to ‘hating’ LIV. But tour brass went behind his back—and everyone else’s—and struck a deal with LIV’s beneficiary, the PIF.
Fast-forward to Wednesday, 51 weeks after that jaw-dropping development, and McIlroy reflected upon his prior commitment to the tour.
“I think, in hindsight, I wish I hadn’t gotten involved,” McIlroy revealed Wednesday.
“My whole thing is I’m just disappointed to what it’s done to, not to the game of golf, the game of golf will be fine, but men’s professional golf and this sort of divide we have at the minute.”
The game remains split, as the PGA Tour and the PIF have yet to strike a formal agreement. Perhaps they never will, but either way, multiple major champions compete on different tours, depriving the product on both sides.
Photo by Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images
Rory McIlroy reacts to a putt during the final round of the 2023 RBC Canadian Open.
Knowing this, McIlroy, who wants to compete on a global tour with every top player, has changed his stance on LIV Golf in previous months.
He echoed those sentiments again Wednesday.
“I’ve said that I certainly hold no grudge; I hold no resentment over the guys that chose to go and play on LIV,” McIlroy added.
“Everyone’s got their own decisions to make, and everyone has the right to make those decisions,” McIlroy added.
The best players in the world compete side-by-side only four times per year at each of the major championships.
Look no further than this year’s PGA Championship, which produced plenty of memorable fireworks, with LIV Golf’s Bryson DeChambeau providing tons of energy and drama. Fans seemed to embrace DeChambeau more than ever before, too, a stark contrast from when he played on the PGA Tour.
Nevertheless, McIlroy hopes golf fans will see DeChambeau—and other LIV Golfers—compete alongside PGA Tour players more often than the four majors. Many golf fans feel that way, too.
But his admission Wednesday also reveals that McIlroy is truly sick and tired of the divide, the drama, the back-and-forth, and the circus this saga has created.
“Hindsight’s always 20/20, but in hindsight, I wish I hadn’t gotten as deeply involved as I have,” McIlroy reaffirmed.
“Hopefully, we’re on a path to sorting it all out and getting [everyone] to come back together.”
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.
