Rory McIlroy argues LIV Golf turned the game into an arms race and made a revelation about this year’s Masters…
Rory McIlroy says that LIV Golf officials were “going around Augusta saying they wanted to destroy the European Tour”, just days before it emerged the Saudi Public Investment Fund was withdrawing its funding from the stricken league.
McIlroy has backed DP World Tour chief executive Guy Kinnings, who told The Scotsman this week that LIV “wanted to destroy us” with its financial muscle by targeting events and sponsors. He claims LIV officials made their intentions clear about plans to demolish the circuit at this year’s Masters.
“I agree with everything that Guy said,” McIlroy told reporters here at the Abu Dhabi Aldar Championship. “They took players, they took sponsors, they turned professional golf into an arms race. They were going around Augusta this year saying they wanted to destroy The European Tour. Yeah, I agree with everything.
“I think people that don’t agree are probably very shortsighted. Look, there was some of the money that they used the right way, created the International Series on The Asian Tour, great for a couple years, but where did that leave the Asian Tour? They left them high and dry. Asian Tour came back into the fold and did a partnership with the PGA Tour and The European Tour. Again, this was always going to be the case.
“It was always going to be good for a few years until something like this happened, or they realised they weren’t going to get any return on investment, or they were going to leave the golf space and go invest in something else and invest in something that would actually make them money.
“I think for long-term sustainability for men’s professional golf, I think we are in a much better spot.”
McIlroy believes the golf world will look back at LIV’s insurgence as a “very strange time”.
He added: “It gave players a lot of leverage over the tours, and I don’t necessarily think that’s a good thing for the overall health of the professional game.
“I think there has to be a balance there. There has to be a bit of give and take. I’ve said this from the start, there’s never been a better time to be a professional golfer. Talk to Jack Nicklaus or any of these older guys, they would have loved LIV to come around in their day, they would have made more money, and we are all making more money because of it.
“But I do think there has to be a bit of a reset. I’ve talked about this it. They created a false economy within men’s professional golf, and I think that there is going to be a bit of a reset here, which — just for things to be a little bit more sustainable. You know, there’s not as much of an arms race as there was maybe a couple of years ago, and some players will argue that that’s not good for players – but I think that’s very short-term thinking.
“If you want sustainable tours, and we want these tours object around in 50 years’ time, there has to be sustainable business practises in place to make sure they are around in 50 years’ time.”
More to follow