In a wild past 12 months of golf, McIlroy’s press conference ahead of this week’s RBC Canadian Open, which has once again been overshadowed by off-course dealings, was arguably the most anticipated in recent times.
The PGA Tour’s ‘spokesperson’ was here to speak on a monumental deal between the PGA Tour and its rival LIV Golf‘s backers – the Saudi Arabian Public Investment fund. Is he in favor of the deal? Did he even know about it? And what next? Anyone with even a tiny bit of interest in golf was eagerly awaiting his words.
To start with, McIlroy says he found out the news at 6.30am yesterday morning after PGA Tour Board member Jimmy Dunne texted him on Monday night asking for a call the following morning. He knew talks had been going on in the background but still admits he “learned about it pretty much at the same time everyone else did” and called it a “surprise.”
McIlroy cut a slightly stressed figure, admitting that he wasn’t looking forward to facing the media and tried to take himself out of the equation and look at the deal for the good of the game. McIlroy did describe himself “a sacrificial lamb” after 12+ months of talking out against LIV, supporting the PGA Tour, re-shaping it and losing friendships, notably with Ryder Cup partner Sergio Garcia whom he was a groomsman for at the Spaniard’s wedding.
The Northern Irishman’s ‘figurehead’ role took a toll on his golf and his mind, too. He skipped the RBC Heritage after his game suffered with missed cuts at The Players Championship and The Masters, losing out on $3m of his PIP money for missing his second ‘designated’ event of the year.
“It was just more for my mental and emotional wellbeing,” he explained as to his reasonings for skipping Harbour Town.
In regards to the new PGA Tour/PIF merger, it is incredibly early days with the entire golf world unclear as to what’s going to follow. McIlroy, when taking himself out of the equation, says it’s ultimately “going to be good for the game of professional golf.”
He spoke in detail about various different areas of the new ‘entity’ set to come in…
“I still hate LIV”
McIlroy stressed that calls of LIV and the PGA Tour merging wasn’t correct and had some fascinating views on the future of team golf and LIV Golf under the new ‘entity’ of the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and PIF.
“Yeah, so I think the one thing that I think was really misconstrued yesterday was all the headlines were PGA Tour merges with LIV,” he said. “And LIV’s got nothing to do with this,…
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