It’s not yet been a week since the PGA Tour announced a historic deal with the Saudi Public Investment Fund that finances LIV Golf, but there could already be a significant sign that rifts are healing fast.
One of the most vocal supporters of the PGA Tour in over 12 months of animosity between it and LIV Golf was Rory McIlroy, and, even last week, he declared “I still hate LIV” in spite of the deal.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the fence, Phil Mickelson was an outspoken critic of the PGA Tour when he emerged as a key figure in support of the new circuit, and lambasted what he described as its “obnoxious greed.”
Now it has emerged that the two will accompany each other in a practice round on Wednesday before the US Open begins the next day, along with another PGA Tour star, Jon Rahm.
That will mark quite the turnaround considering it was only last week that Mickelson made a dig at McIlroy, saying that no LIV Golf team would want him “because they’d have to deal with all his bs.”
That was just the latest in a series of jibes at McIlroy over recent months, which also included a sarcastic tweet while McIlroy was on the way to winning January’s Dubai Desert Classic, which read: “What a great -7 3rd round by @McIlroyRory in DUBAI to open up a 3 shot lead. See if he can finish it off. Watch live final round action from the Middle East on the golf channel.”
McIlroy hasn’t exactly been shy to call out Mickelson either. Last month, he described Mickelson’s argument that LIV is the best way to prepare for Majors as “flawed,” but his criticisms of Lefty go back further than that.
For example, in August, McIlroy conceded that some of Mickelson’s ideas for rermodelling the PGA Tour were good, but caveated it by saying he didn’t “want to give Phil any kind of merit at all,” while in Netflix docuseries Full Swing, at one point he rips Mickelson, saying: “F*** you Phil!” before joking that he hopes the line makes the cut.
In short, there has been no love lost between the pair since LIV Golf came on the scene over a year ago.
Events at the top of the game are moving more quickly than most are able to keep up with, particularly in light of the big announcement last week. However, with McIlroy and Mickelson seemingly burying the hatchet to play in practice round, it’s surely a sign that events are also moving in directions most would have thought impossible just a week ago.
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