{"id":266716,"date":"2025-11-06T14:45:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T14:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/266716\/"},"modified":"2025-11-06T14:45:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T14:45:10","slug":"lee-westwood-criticizes-rory-mcilroy-for-liv-golf-comment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/266716\/","title":{"rendered":"Lee Westwood Criticizes Rory McIlroy For LIV Golf Comment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lee Westwood<\/a> has taken a swipe at Rory McIlroy<\/a> over his comments on LIV Golf making the move to 72 holes<\/a> from the 54 it had made its name on.<\/p>\n

The Englishman obviously didn’t take too kindly to McIlroy labelling the move to 72 holes as a “peculiar” one<\/a>, saying “I don’t pay too much attention to what Rory says” when appearing on talkSPORT radio’s breakfast show.<\/a><\/p>\n

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In a swipe at McIlroy’s opinions on golf, Westwood added: “He’ll change his mind for next week.”<\/p>\n

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The big change from LIV Golf has had everyone talking<\/a>, with the 54-hole format one of the founding principles that set it apart from regular golf tournaments, but seemingly due to player power organisers have switched to a more usual four-round format.<\/p>\n

Jon Rahm<\/a> was quoted in the LIV Golf press release calling it a win for the players, as he’s always advocated for event to be extended by 18 holes.<\/p>\n

Team-mate Tyrrell Hatton<\/a> agrees, but said that only last year the vast majority of players on LIV Golf were against moving away from 54 holes – but now most of the noises from players are positive ones.<\/p>\n

That includes Westwood, who says it’s a good move for all concerned.<\/p>\n

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“I think it was good for the players, good for the sponsors,” Westwood added on talkSPORT. “And good for the fans more than anything. They get to see another day’s golf.”<\/p>\n

The former World No.1 says that LIV Golf seeking Official World Golf Ranking recognition was another reason for the change, along with top players wanting more 72-hole action to prepare better for the Majors.<\/p>\n

“I think [OWGR points] is one of the angles behind it. I think there were a few different things.<\/p>\n

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\"Lee\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

“Some of the guys focused their whole season around the Major championships. And playing 54 holes was putting them at a bit of a disadvantage.<\/p>\n

“I think they wanted to play 72 holes – that represented more the Major championship format.<\/p>\n

“But world rankings is one of the things on LIV’s mind. I don’t know whether it’s in the criteria or not because there’s 54-hole tournaments that got world ranking points before.<\/p>\n

“But I think the boxes that you need to tick with the world rankings, 72 holes probably helps that.”<\/p>\n

McIlroy’s observation that removing the 54-hole format from LIV Golf also removed one big differentiator from mainstream golf is ironically the same argument being made by fans of the PIF-backed tour.<\/p>\n

Along with obviously the team format and shotgun start, playing just three rounds was given as a cornerstone for why LIV (54 in Roman numerals) was the future of the sport.<\/p>\n

New CEO Scott O’Neil is taking a much more pragmatic approach in his tenure though, and so seems happy to make the sacrifice now for a long-term benefit.<\/p>\n

It’s obviously a thorny issue with players and fans alike though.<\/p>\n

“I DON’T PAY MUCH ATTENTION TO RORY!” Lee Westwood RESPONDS to Rory McIlroy’s LIV change comments! – YouTube
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\nLee Westwood
\n<\/a>
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\nRory McIlroy
\n<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lee Westwood has taken a swipe at Rory McIlroy over his comments on LIV Golf making the move…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266717,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-266716","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-golf","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}