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Rory McIlroy has never been shy to give his opinion about the LIV Golf, and that’s not changing now that the Saudi-backed organization plans to merge with the PGA Tour.
Speaking at a press conference Wednesday, the world’s No. 3-ranked player made it clear he’s still not a fan of the newer company.
“It’s not LIV,” he said. “I still hate LIV, I hate them. I hope it goes away and I fully expect that it does.”
However, he said, he did expect the deal would be good for the sport in the long run, adding: “Ultimately when I look at the bigger picture, 10 years down the line, this is going to be good for the game of professional golf.”
McIlroy is hardly the only PGA star who is conflicted over the deal. Tuesday’s surprise announcement that the PGA and LIV would merge into a single golf behemoth caught a lot of the golf world’s top stars off guard, with many saying they had no idea it was coming.
Included among those was Tiger Woods, according to ESPN. The sport’s biggest name and winner of major tournaments had very publicly rejected a $1.2 billion offer from LIV last year to remain with the PGA.
“When I first saw it, I thought it was a joke,” Scott Stallings, three-time PGA Tour winner, told ESPN about the merger.
Because so many players turned down big offers from LIV to remain loyal to the PGA, there is a fair amount of animosity that seems to be bubbling. Stallings, when asked what his first question would be to PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan, replied “how many other sides of his mouth can he speak out of?”
Other players who were left in the dark before the announcement included Collin Morikawa and Sahith Theegala.
I love finding out morning news on Twitter
— Collin Morikawa (@collin_morikawa) June 6, 2023
Reaction from Sahith Theegala. Players just in absolute shock. pic.twitter.com/E8rCLvOtCi
— Gabby Herzig (@GabbyHerzig) June 6, 2023
McIlroy, Wednesday morning, added to the pile-on, not only reiterating his animosity toward LIV, but towards the players who defected to it.
“There still has to be consequences to actions,” he said at a press conference. “The people who left the PGA Tour irreparably harmed this Tour…We can’t just welcome them back in. That’s not going to happen.”
McIlroy, who was an outspoken critic of the LIV tour before the merger, also acknowledged complaints from fans about working with the Saudi-run organization.
“I said to Jay yesterday that you’ve galvanized everyone against something and that thing you’ve galvanized against, you’ve now partnered with. … It’s hypocritical,” he said.
