{"id":387401,"date":"2026-01-04T13:38:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T13:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/387401\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T13:38:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T13:38:09","slug":"rory-mcilroy-now-says-hed-welcome-back-liv-defectors-to-pga-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/387401\/","title":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy now says he&#8217;d welcome back LIV defectors to PGA Tour"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Rory McIlroy appears ready to welcome back LIV golfers to the PGA Tour.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The five-time major winner softened his take on defectors to the Saudi-backed golf league <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=xINrWCNxXJo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">during an appearance on \u201cThe Overlap\u201d podcast<\/a> this week.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019ve made the money but they\u2019ve paid their consequence when you talk about their reputation and some of the things that they\u2019ve lost by going over there,\u201d McIlroy said. \u201cIf it made the overall tour stronger to have Bryson DeChambeau back and whoever else, I would be OK with it. But, it\u2019s not just me, and I recognize that not everyone\u2019s in my position. It would be up to the collective group of PGA Tour members to make that decision.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38082331\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/2250419008.jpg\" alt=\"Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland walks on the third fairway on day four of the Crown Australian Open 2025 at The Royal Melbourne Golf Club on December 07, 2025 in Melbourne, Australia.\" class=\"wp-image-38082331\"  \/>Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland walks on the third fairway on day four of the Crown Australian Open 2025 at The Royal Melbourne Golf Club on December 07, 2025 in Melbourne, Australia. Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>McIlroy, one of the top pro-PGA Tour voices in the sport, admitted that he may have been \u201ctoo judgmental\u201d with his previous comments about golfers who jumped to the rebel golf venture.<\/p>\n<p>During the conversation, McIlroy still took time to dig at LIV Golf, casting doubt on it\u2019s future.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf LIV is failing to capture the imagination and they\u2019ve spent so much money on this venture and it isn\u2019t making a return for them I don\u2019t know how much longer they can keep it going,\u201d McIlroy said.<\/p>\n<p>McIlroy\u2019s comments come after Brooks Koepka, one of LIV Golf\u2019s biggest stars, announced that he was <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/12\/23\/sports\/brooks-koepka-leaving-liv-golf-in-mutually-agreed-breakup-surprise\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">leaving the golf league in 2026<\/a> in a \u201cmutually agreed\u201d breakup in what some speculated could be a sign of his impending return to the PGA Tour.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38082692\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/GettyImages-2254400572.jpg\" alt=\"Rory McIlroy of Boston Common Golf arrives ahead of a match against Los Angeles Golf Club at SoFi Center on January 02, 2026 in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. \" class=\"wp-image-38082692\"  \/>Rory McIlroy of Boston Common Golf arrives ahead of a match against Los Angeles Golf Club at SoFi Center on January 02, 2026 in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.  TGL Golf via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>In 2022, after several big names like DeChambeau, Patrick Reed and Phil Mickelson, among others, joined LIV Golf, the PGA Tour <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2022\/06\/09\/pga-tour-suspends-all-players-in-saudi-backed-liv-golf-league\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">suspended those who made the jump<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Currently, golfers who play in a LIV Golf tournament face a one-year ban from PGA Tour events from their last appearance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy appears ready to welcome back LIV golfers to the PGA Tour.\u00a0 The five-time major winner softened&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387402,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[18939,15547,427,10658,3332,6082,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-387401","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-brooks-koepka","9":"tag-bryson-dechambeau","10":"tag-golf","11":"tag-liv-golf","12":"tag-pga-tour","13":"tag-rory-mcilroy","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387401","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=387401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}