“Take the best events and create something” – McIlroy’s global tour vision

Rory McIlroy feels some of the PGA Tour’s tournaments don’t capture the imagination of the players or the public and would rather see a global tour created out of the biggest events played in the world.

Speaking after a third round 68 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational – a tournament McIlroy would include in a world tour scenario – the Holywood man detailed his vision for a potential world tour which would be built around some of golf’s most famous and historic events.

“I would say take the best events from all over the world and try to create something through that, because those events still have history and legacy and tradition and all the things that are still very important in golf,” explained the four-time major winner.

“I think there’s been some experiments with creating new tournaments out of nothing, and I don’t know if they have really captured the imagination of the general public.”

McIlroy said earlier this week that LIV was “not for me,” instead he is motivated by adding his name to historic titles alongside the likes of Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus, not by how much money is in his bank account, or starting again on a new tour.

“That’s what you want, like, why is the Masters the Masters, why is this tournament this tournament, why are the more historical tournaments the ones that are revered so much in our game, it’s because they have history, and people remember Ben Hogan winning or Jack Nicklaus or these guys. It’s all about trying to bridge the, I guess, trying to bridge the present back to the past and the people that came before us. I think that’s important.”

The Northern Irishman drew some criticism over the weekend for his comments on wanting a more “cut throat” PGA Tour which would put a squeeze on the number of cards given and players playing.

I haven’t thought about it that hard. I guess my thing is, I’m all for more cut throat and more competitive and trying to give pathways to the younger generation.

“So, through Korn Ferry Tour, through PGA TOUR U, through — like, I would rather have more of a, like, yeah, instead of — I just feel like there’s a lot of categories on TOUR that people are sort of still benefiting off what they did like five or ten years ago. I feel like the most competitive professional golf tour in the world, you should have to come out and prove yourself year after year after year.”