Rory McIlroy addresses PGA Tour-LIV Golf match: ‘We all thought it was a good idea’
By Adam Woodard
At this week’s Amgen Irish Open on the DP World Tour, world No. 3 Rory McIlroy was asked about the recently announced PGA Tour vs. LIV Golf match that will see himself and Scottie Scheffler take on Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka later this year in Las Vegas.
“I wouldn't say it's meant to send a message. It's more we wanted to do something that, I guess, all golf fans could get excited about,” McIlroy said of the made-for-TV event. “You've got the best player in the world. You've got two guys in Bryson and Brooks that have won majors in the last two years. You've got me in there who -- I haven't done what those guys have done the last couple years but I've definitely been I feel one of the best players in the world.”
"It's a way to show golf fans in the world that this is what could happen or these are the possibilities going forward,” he continued. “I've been saying this for a long time. I think golf and golf fans get to see us together more than four times a year.”
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McIlroy added he hoped that the December timing of the match, when the golf schedule is quiet, will get fans excited for the 2025 season and be “a sign of things to come in the future.”
Speaking of the future, McIlroy also confirmed the reports that the PGA Tour, as well as 15-time major winner Tiger Woods, met with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund this week to continue discussions with the goal of striking a deal to reunite the fractured professional game. The PIF is the financial backer for LIV Golf, the upstart 54-hole team circuit that has been a rock in the Tour’s shoe for the last three years. The meetings were heavily criticized for taking place in New York the week of the 23rd anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
“It's certainly peculiar timing,” McIlroy said of the discussions between the PGA Tour and Saudi PIF this week. “I don't know much about the talks that are going on. I know that there is but that's not something that I'm a part of.”
“I think we are all in the game of golf trying to look for a solution to all this and try to move forward. So we'll see, yeah,” he added. “I know as much as you do at this point, and I'm sure news will start to trickle out here in the next few days.”
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