\t\t\t\tRory McIlroy has indicated the PGA Tour does not need LIV Golf\u2019s biggest names\u2026<\/p>\n
Rory McIlroy has no apparent desire to see LIV Golf\u2019s biggest stars return to the PGA Tour, indicating they failed to provide value to their own creaking league.<\/p>\n
While LIV is in Indianapolis for a premature finale to its 2026 season, McIlroy is at the BMW Championship in St Louis aiming to improve on a galling start to the FedEx Cup playoffs. <\/p>\n
Much of the attention inside the golf world, however, is focused on events at Chatham Hills as players wait to discover LIV\u2019s fate without the backing of the Saudi Public Investment Fund next season.<\/p>\n
The league is working on a reimagined \u2018LIV 2.0\u2019 \u2013 a model with a leaner schedule and reduced purses. But investment from a proposed \u201clead investor\u201d that LIV says it has secured could hinge on the commitment of its most prominent names, including Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm.<\/p>\n
McIlroy was asked if he would like to see LIV players back and whether they would provide value to the PGA Tour. \u201cI\u2019d argue, have they brought value to LIV?\u201d McIlroy replied, flatly. \u201cI think the PGA Tour is in a really good spot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brooks Koepka found a path back to the PGA Tour via a contrived Returning Members Program at the start of the season, which was also made available to Rahm, DeChambeau and Cameron Smith. The trio remained with LIV and McIlroy opined that the ship has sailed for such a lenient return. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not part of these discussions,\u00a0but I\u2019m pretty sure they\u2019re not going to be welcomed back straight away,\u201d he added at Bellerive Golf Club, where he is hoping to improve on finishing 66th at last week\u2019s FedEx St Jude Championship.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they were offered this Returning Member Program back in February,\u00a0the one that Brooks took, maybe. But that has come and gone.\u00a0I think it was said at the time that\u00a0the deal that they might get going forward,\u00a0if they do decide to come back,\u00a0isn\u2019t going to be as good as the one that Brooks got.\u00a0I\u2019d say it\u2019s going to be a tough, tough road back.\u201d<\/p>\n
McIlroy added: \u201cI feel like I\u2019ve kept my position consistent\u00a0that LIV has never been a good thing for the game. Whatever 2.0 looks like \u2013 if it even happens,\u00a0they say they\u2019re trying to be more collaborative and all that \u2013 but this is the best platform\u00a0for the top professional golfers in the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cWere there some things at the start of LIV\u00a0that the PGA Tour could have done better?\u00a0Sure, but I think that the guys that went,\u00a0or you think back to the start with,\u00a0like, say, Phil [Mickelson] was unhappy with some stuff \u2013 whatever it was \u2013 surely that just warranted a conversation\u00a0instead of blowing the entire professional game up and doing something else.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t take any personal satisfaction of people losing jobs. That doesn\u2019t seem right.\u00a0But I\u2019ve always felt like\u00a0this is the best place to play professional golf. And I\u2019m pretty sure if the PGA Tour were handed $6billion, it would have done a better job of it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy has indicated the PGA Tour does not need LIV Golf\u2019s biggest names\u2026 Rory McIlroy has no…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":743374,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-743373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=743373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/743374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=743373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=743373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=743373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}