Rory McIlroy: 'I would retire' if forced to play LIV Golf
Rory McIlroy may not like still hearing questions about LIV Golf, but he always brings good answers.
Say this for Rory McIlroy: he's sick of talking about LIV Golf, the Saudi Public Investment Fund, the u-turns of the PGA Tour and the way he was left alone on an island by the entire affair ... but he's still delivering money quotes about it all.
Just after shooting a 6-under opening round at the Genesis Scottish Open that puts him near the top of the leaderboard, McIlroy faced assembled media, took a deep breath, and answered yet another question about the stunning PGA Tour-PIF partnership that's rocked the world of golf since its surprise announcement six weeks ago.
"If LIV Golf was the last place on Earth to play golf," McIlroy said, per Golf Magazine, "I would retire. That’s how I feel about it."
Not much wiggle room there. McIlroy was responding to reports in documents released during a congressional investigation of the Tour-PIF deal which indicated that he and Tiger Woods could have been offered LIV teams of their own as inducements to join the breakaway tour last summer. That idea was quickly scrapped, and neither McIlroy nor Woods apparently came anywhere close to signing with LIV.
McIlroy in particular spent much of last year riding hard for the Tour, speaking often of its history and legacy. It came as a significant shock, then, when he learned — just hours before the rest of the world — that the Tour and the PIF struck an agreement in principle to join forces and create a new, joint organization to manage golf across the world.
"It's hard for me not to sit up here and feel somewhat like a sacrificial lamb,” McIlroy said after the deal was announced. He conceded that the weight of money was just too much for the Tour's legacy to bear. “I see what’s happened in other sports, I see what’s happened in other businesses, and honestly I’ve just resigned myself to the fact that this is what’s going to happen.”
McIlroy is famously — or infamously — mired in a nine-year majorless run, stuck at four since 2014. However, his lone Open Championship win came at Royal Liverpool, which just happens to be the site of next week's Open. McIlroy has been knocking on the door — he's placed in the top eight in six of the last seven majors — but he, better than anyone now on Tour, knows how hard it is to carry a major lead all the way through the 18th on Sunday. At least when he's on the course, though, he's not answering LIV Golf questions.
