{"id":384123,"date":"2026-01-02T20:03:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T20:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/384123\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T20:03:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T20:03:07","slug":"rory-mcilroy-says-he-would-accept-return-of-liv-golfers-to-pga-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/384123\/","title":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy says he would accept return of LIV golfers to PGA Tour"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rory McIlroy has appeared to change his stance on the return of LIV golfers to the PGA Tour.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they\u2019ve already paid their consequence,\u201d McIlroy said in an appearance on the British podcast \u201cThe Overlap.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0\u201cThey\u2019ve made the money, but they\u2019ve paid their consequence in terms of the reputation and some of the things they\u2019ve lost by going over there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brooks Koepka, a five-time major winner, raised the issue of entry back to the PGA Tour with his decision last month to leave LIV<\/a>. Koepka, who joined LIV in 2022 for a reported nine-figure payday, has not said anything publicly about his decision or what he hopes to be next for him. In a statement, LIV attributed his desire not to play on the fledgling tour in 2026 as a family decision.<\/p>\n

The PGA Tour previously has required anyone who plays in a LIV tournament to sit out a full year from their last event on the rival tour, which would make Koepka eligible to play again on the PGA Tour in August. But the way Koepka left for LIV leaves more room for interpretation in that rule. Sources with knowledge of the situation, granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, told The Athletic<\/a>\u00a0that because Koepka simply didn\u2019t renew his PGA Tour status at the end of 2022, he would need to reapply, and indications are he plans to.<\/p>\n

McIlroy has long been one of LIV Golf\u2019s harshest critics and turned down multi-million-dollar offers to join the tour. The 36-year-old has also said he would rather retire than join LIV Golf.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hate them,\u201d McIlroy said of LIV in 2023<\/a>. \u201cI hope it goes away. We just can\u2019t welcome them back in. It\u2019s hard not to feel like I was a sacrificial lamb. I\u2019ve come to terms with it. I\u2019ve resigned myself to the fact that this is what\u2019s going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the competitor tour has struggled to succeed financially, discussion has increased around the possible return of other LIV golfers to the PGA Tour. McIlroy said he may have been too quick to judge his counterparts who joined the Saudi-backed league.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t like what it\u2019s done to our game because it\u2019s created this massive fracture,\u201d McIlroy said. \u201cI said on this podcast last time that maybe I was a bit too judgmental of the guys that went because not everyone is in the same position that I\u2019m in. So you get offered double the money to do the same job, it\u2019s sort of hard to turn down.\u201d<\/p>\n

In golf\u2019s current format, LIV and PGA Tour golfers only come together for major tournaments and the biennial Ryder Cup. McIlroy believes that is not sufficient.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor golf to be relevant, we need the best players together more often than that,\u201d McIlroy said.<\/p>\n

While the five-time major winner is ready to welcome LIV golfers, he\u2019s not sure if there will be enough support for that move at the moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it made the overall tour stronger to have Bryson DeChambeau back and whoever else, I would be okay with it,\u201d McIlroy said. \u201cBut it\u2019s not just me, and I recognize that not everyone is in my position. It would be up to the collective group of PGA Tour members to make that decision.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy has appeared to change his stance on the return of LIV golfers to the PGA Tour.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":384124,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-384123","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}