I’ve often wondered what the men’s professional golfing landscape would look like if a few more big-name players had hitched their wagons to the LIV train back when it first appeared on the radar.
The likes of Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson were always going to take the vast sums of money they were offered, but what if the early indications were that they would be joined by at least another 20 players who could legitimately claim to be in their leagues in terms of standing, calibre, recognition, or all three.
What if Mickelson hadn’t told Alan Shipnuck that the Saudis were “scary motherf***ers to get involved with” and gone on to say that it was common knowledge that they’d been responsible for the cold-blooded murder of a Washington Post journalist?
Before a ball was ever struck in anger on LIV, Mickelson had unwittingly detonated a grenade inside the bunker, and we may never know the full extent of the damage it caused in the early months, how many players were poised to sign or were strongly considering it and then backed off as a result.
That LIV still held its first event within six months of Shipnuck publishing Mickelson’s comments is all the evidence you need that nothing was going to stop the PIF in pushing ahead because their initial attempts to get a foot in the door with the PGA Tour were rebuffed and they accurately identified that the PGA Tour had become stagnant.
And what if Rory McIlroy had courted the early advances?
With Tiger Woods’ future as any sort of golfer, nevermind one of the best in the world, in serious doubt following his near-fatal car crash in early 2021, McIlroy was the game’s undisputed alpha when talent, recognition, achievement, outspokenness, and media attention were all factored in.
In a world where Mickelson’s quotes were never issued – or at least not issued to a journalist writing a biography on Phil – and McIlroy was among those who were championing the upstart behind the scenes, where would we now be?
His move might not have brought down the house, but it would’ve removed one of the foundation pillars of the PGA Tour, and rather than leaving cracks, it would’ve left a gaping hole and it’s hard to imagine that many other big names wouldn’t have decided to bolt through it.
Picture a world in which DJ, Phil, Sergio, Bryson, Brooks, Cam Smith, Louis Oosthuizen and Patrick Reed, had Rory, Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth, Justin Rose, Hideki Matsuyama, Tony Finau, Viktor Hovland and Adam Scott for company, and casual fans would at least be semi-familiar with the supporting cast.
It’s a very different world; one in which the major championships would’ve been compelled to act sooner to grant LIV players access, and in which the OWGR would’ve been forced into acceptance or face total irrelevancy.
You’d still have had the likes of Jon Rahm, Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Patrick Cantlay, Tommy Fleetwood and Tyrrell Hatton as PGA Tour players, but how long before they’d have deemed the grass to be greener on the other side and switched allegiance too? We got our answers with Rahm and Hatton anyway, even without the fictional exodus of those aforementioned.
But if your granny had balls, and all that….
Instead, Phil said what he said and Rory did what he did, and that was to gather up his sword and shield and take to the front lines.
Now, closing in on four years later, the PGA Tour seems to have weathered the storm, they’ve innovated and addressed some of the shortcomings that LIV sought to exploit in the first place, and McIlroy’s presence is no longer required on the front line. That he bears a scar or two on his back from PGA Tour daggers may have hastened his withdrawal, but his membership and continued participation in the PGA Tour’s biggest events is all that’s required from him now, and they’ve got that for the foreseeable future.
Instead, it’s now the DP World Tour that is most in need of McIlroy’s assistance.
It’s hard to believe that, in 2011, the year that he became a major winner for the first time, McIlroy wasn’t an official PGA Tour member despite claiming his maiden PGA Tour victory at Quail Hollow the previous season.
For a top-10 player in the world now to consider the DP World Tour as his primary workplace and only play the odd PGA Tour event outside of the majors and co-sanctioned events is absurd. But McIlroy did it back then, as did Lee Westwood, the number-one-ranked player on the OWGR.
But a lot has happened in 14 years, and in many ways, the DP World Tour became the red-headed stepchild of men’s professional golf, with Europe’s best playing the bare minimum amount of events to retain membership. And, one suspects, without the Ryder Cup and membership as a necessity for eligibility, most wouldn’t even have fulfilled that basic criteria.
McIlroy himself admitted that he was intending to give up membership in 2019 – a year that saw the Open Championship return to Irish shores for the first time in 68 years – to give himself the best chance to be championship-ready. As things panned out, he did retain membership and was far from championship-ready at Royal Portrush, but in the years since, his devotion to the DP World Tour has grown.
Now, as he prepares to defend his DP World Tour Championship title in Dubai, and stands on the cusp of a seventh Race to Dubai title that would see him surpass Seve Ballesteros’ six and only trail Colin Montgomerie’s eight, nobody can accuse him of taking the tour where he cut his professional teeth for granted.
Even forgetting about the financial elements of it, a top player can’t afford to be playing in the Bahrain Championship instead of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am or the Joburg Open instead of the Arnold Palmer Invitational; not if they want to arrive at major championship venues with a game that’s battle-tested and major-ready.
But McIlroy has continued to prioritise the DP World Tour in the early months, to support the Irish Open, the BMW PGA Championship, and the DP World Tour playoffs, and has added events like the DP World India Championship while pledging to appear in the Australian Open to kick off his 2026 and 2027 campaigns.
And this is exactly the kind of support that the DP World Tour requires as it continues to navigate the stormy seas as a small vessel lightly tethered to the PGA Tour ship.
“There’s a wonderful heritage to this tour,” McIlroy said ahead of the season finale in Dubai.
“I think with the fractured nature of the men’s professional game at the minute, this tour needs all of its stars to step up and play in the big events.
“I understand that I am one of those people and I want to do my utmost to help in whatever way that I can. I feel quite a responsibility to do that and to try to make this tour as strong as it can possibly be.”
It’s crystal clear that LIV isn’t going anywhere; the move to 72 holes only serves to make their events more legitimate. And the Strategic Alliance between the DP World and PGA Tours will only do so much to keep the relationship’s dingy afloat.
The DP World Tour needs its stars. It needs McIlroy. And those of us who want it to survive and thrive should be thankful that he’s up for the fight.
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