While a staunch opponent of the LIV Golf excursion, Rory McIlroy has admitted the emergence of the riot circuit has helped gamers all through the game. The Northern Irishman believes “antiquated” components of the PGA Tour were up to date on direct account of LIV.
The PGA Tour has introduced a raft of adjustments for 2024, together with the advent of umpteen limited-field no-cut occasions. Asked how a lot of this change is right down to the LIV danger, McIlroy spoke back: “A lot of it. I’m not going to sit here and lie. I think the emergence of LIV or the emergence of a competitor to the PGA Tour has benefited everyone that plays elite professional golf.
“I think when you’ve been the biggest golf league in the biggest market in the world for the last 60 years, there’s not a lot of incentive to innovate. This has caused a ton of innovation on the PGA Tour. What was quite, I would say, an antiquated system is being revamped to try to mirror where we’re at in the world in the 21st century with the media landscape.
“LIV coming along, it’s definitely had a massive impact on the game, but I think everyone who is a professional golfer is going to benefit from it going forward.”
McIlroy was part of a player meeting at Sawgrass on Tuesday morning as PGA Tour officials expanded on the landscape for 2024 and beyond. The $25m (£21m) Players Championship begins here on Thursday. The world No 305 James Hahn, who was publicly highly critical of the changes last week, did not attend. That irked McIlroy. “Like, you say all this shit and you’re not even in the meeting?” McIlroy stated. “If you want to get informed and be a part of the process … the fact that he wasn’t even in the room was a slap in the face to everyone there.”
The four-time primary winner defined the collection used to be much less extremely charged than he had expected. “I think when more information and data was presented to them, the people that might have had reservations about it I think came around, or at least were more informed on their opinions,” McIlroy stated.
“I feel it used to be excellent for them to peer that and to peer what the pondering is in the back of what we are in point of fact seeking to do right here. I feel the temperature within the room used to be nowhere close to as sizzling as I expected it to be as soon as the guidelines used to be laid out.”
Jay Monahan, the PGA Tour’s commissioner, has shrugged off any suggestion there could be a pathway back to his organization for LIV golfers. Those individuals, including the 2022 Players champion Cameron Smith, are banned from the PGA Tour. “For some explanation why I’ve been listening to that so much in recent times and I’m no longer sure the place that is coming from,” Monahan stated. “The gamers which might be taking part in on that excursion are contractually obligated to play on that excursion. So any hypotheticals at this level in point of fact are not related. But our place has no longer modified.