{"id":887936,"date":"2026-10-19T17:38:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T17:38:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/887936\/"},"modified":"2026-10-19T17:38:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T17:38:15","slug":"kevin-kisner-calls-out-rory-mcilroy-for-playing-in-india-for-appearance-fee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/887936\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin Kisner calls out Rory McIlroy for playing in India for appearance fee"},"content":{"rendered":"

NBC Sports lead golf analyst Kevin Kisner<\/a> has a growing reputation for speaking without a filter<\/a>. That\u2019s great for golf fans, who frequently get an honest assessment of Kisner\u2019s thoughts on the sport and its top players. But sometimes it puts Kisner at the center of attention in the golf world.<\/p>\n

And this weekend, as World No. 2 Rory McIlroy tees it up in India for a DP World Tour event, Kisner is calling it like he sees it. McIlroy isn\u2019t in India for altruistic reasons of growing the sport of golf internationally, like he\u2019s claimed in remarks this week, he\u2019s there for a paycheck, according to Kisner.<\/p>\n

On a recent episode<\/a> of the\u00a0Fore Play Podcast, Kisner explained himself.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is such a dog sh*t comment, but I guess for the right price, we could all say that comment,\u201d Kisner said of McIlroy\u2019s explanation for playing an event in India. \u201cHe doesn\u2019t want to globally expand in India, he wants to get his $10 million bucks and go play in India. \u2026Rory\u2019s not even hitting driver this week. You think he wants to go play a tournament where he can\u2019t use his number one weapon [because the course is so short]?\u201d<\/p>\n

Kisner continued: \u201cThey always seem to say the right thing when they\u2019re over there. Like, \u2018As part of your appearance fee, here\u2019s your script for altruism. And you need to mention these four lines in whatever interviews you do throughout the week.\u2019 Which is totally fine. I\u2019d do it too.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Sunday, McIlroy got a chance to respond to Kisner\u2019s criticisms, saying it\u2019s possible to receive an appearance fee to play an event but also be genuine in your desire to grow the sport of golf internationally.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udea8\ud83d\udde3\ufe0f\ud83c\uddee\ud83c\uddf3 #CLAPPING BACK \u2014 World #2 Rory McIlroy has responded to Kevin Kisner\u2019s comments after being accused of playing in India solely for the appearance fees. Rory\u2019s full response \u2b07\ufe0f<\/p>\n

@TrackingRory https:\/\/t.co\/iTNE3BRdXl<\/p>\n

\u2014 NUCLR GOLF (@NUCLRGOLF) October 18, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know why me being in India, why Kiz would even comment on that,\u201d McIlroy began. \u201cTwo things can be true at the same time. People can get paid to come and play at a tournament but at the same time do it from a place of a genuine interest of trying to bring the sport to another country, a developing country, a country where the middle class in India is larger than the whole population of the United States. It\u2019s a huge market for golf.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s fair to say that both Kisner and McIlroy are justified in this scenario. Kisner is right that McIlroy would likely never play in India if it weren\u2019t for a hefty appearance fee, but McIlroy can certainly do so while being genuinely happy to bring world-class golf to a new country. Of course, McIlroy\u2019s last comment, \u201cIt\u2019s a huge market for golf,\u201d is also very telling. Even without an appearance fee, India offers a massive untapped market for golf. And if McIlroy makes it a point to endear himself to the Indian market, his decision to play in India could extend well beyond a one-time appearance fee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NBC Sports lead golf analyst Kevin Kisner has a growing reputation for speaking without a filter. That\u2019s great…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":887937,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,74429,6082,99],"class_list":["post-887936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-kevin-kisner","tag-rory-mcilroy","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887936","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=887936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/887937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=887936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=887936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=887936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}