LIV PGA Merger: Rory McIlroy lashes out at Saudi-backed league, praises compromise deal
Rory McIlroy was one of about 100 players at a meeting following the remarkable LIV Golf-PGA Tour peace agreement – and to say some were angry is an understatement.
Rory McIlroy has been the most strident anti-LIV voice in golf’s bitter power struggle and he did not hold back as he faced the media for the first time since a remarkable peace agreement was struck.
In a passionate press address at the RBC Canadian Open, he said he felt like “a sacrificial lamb” and that players who had stayed with the PGA Tour should be compensated for their loyalty. He also stressed that the deal was not a merger between LIV Golf and the PGA Tour but a partnership with the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) that safeguarded the future. “It’s not LIV,” he said. “I hate LIV. I would hope it goes away and I would fully expect it does.”
The Times understands that Amanda Staveley, the Newcastle United director, has been a conduit between the PIF and McIlroy and managed to ease some of his concerns. The PIF, which funds LIV Golf, will inject several billion dollars into the new commercial entity. Further talks will take place between the PIF, the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour at next week’s US Open in Los Angeles.
Jay Monahan, the PGA Tour commissioner, had described the deal as combining the PGA Tour with LIV, but despite his public and consistent criticism of the rebel league, McIlroy believes the agreement will prove a shrewd move in the long run. “Technically, anyone that is involved in LIV would now answer to Jay so the Tour has control of everything,” he said.
Asked whether players who stayed loyal should receive some financial pay-out, McIlroy said: “The simple answer is yes. The complex answer is, how does that happen? That’s all a grey area and up in the air, but it’s hard for me not to sit up here and feel somewhat like a sacrificial lamb, and feel I’ve put myself out there and this is what happens.
“Removing myself from the situation, I see how this is better for the game of golf. There’s no denying that. But for me as an individual, there’s going to have to be conversations that are had.” McIlroy said he felt a team element would remain in the future, but his hope was that it would not be under the LIV umbrella.
It was typically spirited fare from the four-times major winner who revealed he had not heard about the deal until Tuesday morning when he was called by PGA Tour policy board member Jimmy Dunne. McIlroy also said he felt nothing had changed regarding Europe’s Ryder Cup team and that players who had done “irreparable damage” to the PGA Tour should not be allowed back without consequences.
McIlroy had been one of about 100 players at a tempestuous players’ meeting in Toronto on Tuesday night. Monahan tried to appease angry players who called for him to resign, but McIlroy said he still had confidence in him. “I said to Jay yesterday, ‘You’ve galvanized everyone against something and that thing that you galvanized everyone against you’ve now partnered with.’ So, yeah, of course I understand it. It is hypocritical.”
However, he said he had worked with Monahan closer than most and had been told the LIV rebels would face penalties before coming back. “There still have to be consequences to actions,” he said. “The people that left the PGA Tour irreparably harmed this tour and started litigation against it. We can’t just welcome them back in. And I think that was the one thing that Jay was trying to get across yesterday is, ‘Guys, we’re not just going to bring these guys back in and pretend like nothing’s happened.’ ”
The exchanges at the players’ meeting resulted in lowly ranked Grayson Murray telling McIlroy to “f*** off” when told to “just play better”. Murray had been calling for Monahan to quit and accusing him of lying. The two players were said to be cordial about the incident afterwards, but it shows the strength of feeling over taking Saudi money and being kept in the dark over the framework agreement that still needs ratifying at board level. One player in the meeting said that it had been “feisty” and “99 per cent of attendees were against the merger”. The Saudis are keen for Monahan to stay at the helm. He will become the chief executive of the new organisation with the Newcastle chairman and PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan as the chairman.
It is the lower-ranked players who are most disgruntled because they may lose their spots to returning LIV men. “That’s where the anger comes from, right, and I understand that,” McIlroy said. “Most of the gripes come from the guys that are trying to hold on to their cards. And they feel like things have already been taken away from them this year with the designated events and smaller fields and no cuts and weighted FedEx Cup points for the larger events with the stronger fields. So they were already feeling somewhat vulnerable.
“Ultimately, when I try to remove myself from the situation and I look at the bigger picture, and ten years down the line, this is going to be good for the game of professional golf. It unifies it and secures its financial future. Whether you like it or not, the PIF and the Saudis want to spend money in the game of golf. They want to do this and they weren’t going to stop. If you’re thinking about one of the biggest sovereign wealth funds in the world, would you rather have them as a partner or an enemy? At the end of the day, money talks.”
Nevertheless, McIlroy said he had “mixed emotions” after spending so long as the de facto spokesman for the PGA Tour and working hard to reshape the schedule. “I don’t understand all the intricacies of what’s going on,” he admitted. “There’s a lot of ambiguity. There’s a lot of things still to be sort of thrashed out. But at least it means that the litigation goes away which has been a massive burden for everyone.”
That may not quite be true. The US Department of Justice had also been probing the PGA Tour over potential anti-competition violations and will now look at the new deal. The statement announcing the new commercial body to “unify golf” stated that PIF will have “the exclusive right to further invest in the new entity, including a right of first refusal on any capital that may be invested in the new entity, including into the PGA Tour, LIV Golf and DP World Tour”.
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