Rory McIlroy Advocating for Golf Tours to Meet and Try to Settle 'Messy' Situation
NORTH BERWICK, Scotland — A staunch defender of the PGA Tour against LIV Golf, Rory McIlroy is now looking for a peaceful resolution to a war that has escalated quickly.
McIlroy told BBC Sport Northern Ireland on Tuesday at the JP McManus Pro-Am at Adare Manor that peace talks need to happen between the DP World Tour, PGA Tour and LIV Golf.
"It's messy, I wish it hadn't got that messy, " McIlroy said. "In hindsight, there were probably steps that were missed that wouldn't have made it as messy."
As the first player to broach the subject of a three-way meeting, McIlroy is potentially painting a target on his back. PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan has taken the moral high ground, stating in a press conference at the Travelers Championship last month that the Saudi-backed group is “an irrational threat; one not concerned with the return on investment or true growth of the game.”
In that same press conference, Monahan called the PGA Tour "an American institution" "that can’t compete with a foreign monarchy that is spending billions of dollars in an attempt to buy the game of golf."
Given that stance, a potential peace conference may be unlikely.
“I don't see it being probable given how the last couple of years have shaped up,” Jordan Spieth said after his first round Thursday at the Genesis Scottish Open.
Spieth, a former PGA Tour Policy Board member, indicated that he has spoken with McIlroy at length on the LIV issue.
“I guess it would matter what that would entail,” Spieth said of the subject and process of the talks. “Because the idea that you could fully go play anywhere and not have to join a tour, I don't think that's what (McIlroy) means whatsoever.”
SI.com interviewed LIV Golf COO Atul Knosla at the LIV Golf event in Portland last week, and he said LIV Golf officials are still willing to sit down and talk with the other tours.
“We would love nothing more than then having a very healthy and strong partnership with all the tours,” Knosla said. “Absolutely, I would welcome the opportunity. And I hope we get a chance to do that.”
It is not clear that the financial backers of LIV Golf, the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, are of the same opinion, having been rebuffed by both tours.
Beyond floating the idea of a peace conference, McIlroy looked at the projected finances and benefits to the game.
"I think if (the PIF) were to invest, having it be invested inside the existing structures, that's the thing I've tried to advocate for over the last few months." McIlroy said. “I think in the long term it will make the game better. There is this disruption that is happening and with disruption comes change and forced change, and I think this has just forced the tours' hands a little bit. They have to adept and change that’s what they’re going to have to try to do.”
McIlroy is not alone on the point that LIV Golf or the money from the Saudis could be a positive for golf.
“One of my big things has always been to grow the game of golf, if this helps grow the game of golf, you know, I don't have any — what difference does it make to me where our players are coming from? They're coming from all over the world,” Jack Nicklaus said at the Memorial Tournament this year in regard to LIV Golf. “If it grows the game and benefits some people and spreads the game, fine.”
Yet it would be hard to see how Monahan could square the stance that McIlroy or Nicklaus espoused when the commissioner has taken the position that the war is between the PGA Tour, "an American institution," and Saudi Arabia.
“When someone attempts to buy the sport, dismantle the institutions that are intrinsically invested in its growth, and focus only on a personal priority, that partnership evaporates,” Monahan said of the symbiotic relationships in golf’s ecosystem. “And instead, we end up with one person, one entity, using endless amounts of money to direct employees, not members or partners, toward their personal goal, which may or may not change tomorrow or the next day.”
Neither the PGA Tour nor the DP World Tour answered a request for comment to McIlroy’s interview.
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