Rory McIlroy hates LIV so much that he’d ‘retire’ if it was last place to golf on Earth
Rory McIlroy has long been one of the most vocal critics of LIV Golf, the Saudi Arabia-backed tour that launched in 2021 to challenge the PGA Tour’s supremacy in professional golf.
And after the two organizations announced in June that they have agreed to combine their assets under a new company, seemingly putting all the bitterness from the last two years behind them?
McIlroy’s feelings haven’t changed one bit.
“If LIV Golf was the last place to play golf on Earth, I would retire. That’s how I feel about it,” the former World No. 1 golfer told reporters Thursday after the first round of the Scottish Open at the Renaissance Club in North Berwick, Scotland. “I’d play the majors. I’d be pretty comfortable.”
The PGA Tour has essentially let Saudi Arabia, known for human rights violations, buy professional golf competition, columnist Bill Plaschke writes.
McIlroy was responding to a question regarding an April document titled, “The Best of Both Worlds,” which was provided to Congress ahead of a Senate subcommittee hearing Tuesday on the agreement between the two tours. The document contained a number of proposals meant to help end the feuding between the tours.
One of the more interesting ideas involved McIlroy and Tiger Woods, another one of LIV’s biggest detractors.
“LIV is proposing that Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods would own teams and play in at least 10 LIV events,” the document reads. “This and the participation of other leading players is subject to further discussions.”
The merger of LIV Golf and PGA Tour shows the lure of sports to launder a country’s reputation, in this case, Saudi Arabia and its human-rights abuses.
Another proposal in the document was for Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of LIV parent company Public Investment Fund, to receive a membership at Augusta National, home of the Masters. Under the agreement that was reached by the PGA Tour and LIV, Al-Rumayyan would head the board of directors of the new company that combines the tours’ assets.
The agreement has yet to be approved by the PGA Tour’s policy board, and details are still sketchy on what exactly will happen after that.
The mention of the proposal involving McIlroy and Woods brought a bemused look to the Northern Irish golfer’s face, before he delivered his scathing response. None of that should come as a surprise from a guy who told reporters days after the merger was announced:
“I still hate LIV. Like, I hate LIV. Like, I hope it goes away.”
Especially in California, the sport relies on extensive public subsidies and tax breaks. The Los Angeles Country Club, which is hosting the U.S. Open, is an example.
Go beyond the scoreboard
Get the latest on L.A.'s teams in the daily Sports Report newsletter.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
