Unsurprisingly, Rory McIlroy’s pre-tournament press conference at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic covered a wide range of topics, and among the most interesting were the world number two’s thoughts on recent developments in the LIV/PGA Tour standoff in the wake of Brooks Koepka’s return to the latter.
McIlroy had been one of the most outspoken advocates for reunification of sorts, and though he continues to feel that it would be in the best interests of the sport as a whole to have the best players in the world competing together on a more regular basis, he admitted that he thinks it unlikely that any arrangement will ever be reached.
“It matters,” he replied when asked if reunification was still important. “But I just don’t see a world where it can happen at this point.
“I don’t see a world where the two or three sides or whoever it is will give up enough. Like for reunification to happen, every side is going to feel like they will have lost, where you really want every side to feel like they have won. And I just don’t think — I think they are just too far apart for that to happen.”
But despite him feeling that reunification is highly unlikely, he still feels that having all of the game’s best players on the same teesheet at the four major championships – and only the four major championships – is not enough.
“Again, my opinion is that golf would be better served if all the best players in the world played together a little more often than they do,” he said. “You know, we’re really only seeing that four times a year at the major championships. But you’re talking about a handful of guys that are missing, say, a Players Championship or some of the other bigger tournaments in the world.
“So, yeah, I’d like to see the best players play together maybe ten times a year instead of four times a year. But I would say that’s the only negative I see to something coming together.”
Regarding the DP World Tour’s stance on fining its members who play in competing LIV Golf events, McIlroy is adamant that the fines are legitimate and that the players being issued the fines had entered into an agreement to uphold them.
“Look, I think any organization or any members’ organisation like this has a right to uphold its rules and regulations. And what the DP World Tour are doing is upholding their rules and regulations and we, as members, sign a document at the start of every year, which has you agree to these rules and regulations, and the people that made the option to go to LIV knew what they were.
“So I don’t see what’s wrong with that, I guess, is my opinion.”
The issue with the fines, of course, is that if they’re not paid, then the players will be in breach of contract and therefore will cease to be DP World Tour members. With Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton among those awaiting a hearing following their appeals against the fines, a ruling in the DP World Tour’s favour – and LIV saying that they would no longer be paying the fines on behalf of their players – will leave the pair with the option of paying the fines themselves or being ruled ineligible for Ryder Cup participation.
For McIlroy, in the event that the appeal fails, there’s one way for those players to prove how much the Ryder Cup means to them.
“Main thing is — look, this is my opinion,” he simplified. “We went really hard on the Americans about being paid to play the Ryder Cup, and we also said that we would pay to play in Ryder Cups. There’s two guys that can prove it.”
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