Rory McIlroy appears to have softened his stance on LIV Golf by saying that he wants negotiations between the Saudi backed tour and the PGA Tour to “bring the game of golf back together.”
It seems quite the u-turn from McIlroy who felt like the ‘sacrificial lamb’ when news of the merger was announced in June and has been the spokesperson for the PGA Tour in the face of LIV since its inception.
McIlroy told CNBC that he feels it would be better for the Public Investment Fund to be invested positively into the growth of the game of golf.
An agreement has yet to be reached since the provisional framework was laid out in the summer while it is widely reported that the PGA Tour are lining up five potential investors including owners of Liverpool Football Club, Fenway Sports Group which would supplant the PIF money.
This would mean that LIV and the PGA Tour would exist as separate entities and McIlroy is keen to avoid any storms.
“I feel like we’ve got a fractured competitive landscape right now and I would prefer if everyone sort of got back into the same boat. I think that’s the best thing for golf,” the four-time major champion told CNBC.
“I would hope when we go through this process, the PIF are the ones that are involved in the framework agreement. Obviously, there’s been other suitors that have been involved and offering their services and their help. But hopefully, when this is all said and done, I sincerely hope that the PIF are involved and we can bring the game of golf back together.”
McIlroy of course is already in bed with FSG having signed up to play for TGL team Boston Common in next year’s virtual golf league which he co-owns with Tiger Woods.
Comparisons have been made between his TGL and LIV Golf, claiming that it is just another upstart venture to line his pockets. The four-time major champion refuted those allegations at the launch of the TGL on Monday.
“It’s meant to be complementary, this is not meant to be disrespectful in any way,” he said at the launch. “Tiger and I, one of the first things we said is ‘if we are going to do this we are going to have to partner with the PGA Tour in some way and make this complementary’.”
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