Rory McIlroy has finally admitted what Greg Norman has long been declaring.
“I’m not going to sit here and lie – the emergence of LIV has benefited everyone that plays elite professional golf,” he said.
The world No 3 made the comments on Wednesday in his preparations for ThePlayers.
For so long touted by the PGA Tour as “the fifth major”, the lustre of this $25 million championship has been affected by the absence of 31 LIV players, who are all serving indefinite suspensions for joining the Saudi-funded circuit.
These included Cam Smith, the reigning Players champion, who, as a Jacksonville resident, has threatened to pay an entrance fee to attend during the tournament.
That would ensure the spotlight remains on the civil war in the sport.
But as divisive as the issue continues to be, it has also had a profound impact on the incentives the tour has felt obliged to offer the top players to stop the talent drain to the Norman enterprise.
At a players meeting on Tuesday, Jay Monahan, the tour commissioner, outlined the radical overhaul to the 2024 schedule that will see 12 elevated events with purses with a minimum of $20 million.
Eight of these will be limited fields featuring the top-rated 70-78 golfers in events with no cuts. It is an unashamed and transparent move on behalf of the overlords to assuage the superstars such as McIlroy.
Indeed, these changes have come about because of the intervention of McIlroy and Tiger Woods as the pair identified the necessity to have the most high-profile players battling it out against each other on a more regular basis and so put more money into the pockets of the already privileged.
McIlroy is honest enough to acknowledge that this overhaul has only come about because of the advent of the rebel league and without it would have carried on being stuck in the past.
“When you’ve been the biggest golf league in the biggest market in the world for the last 60 years, there’s not a lot of incentive to innovate,” McIlroy said.
“LIV has caused a ton of innovation at the PGA Tour, and what was quite, I would say, an antiquated system is being revamped to try to mirror where we’re at in the world in the 21st century.
“You know, the PGA Tour isn’t just competing with LIV Golf or other sports. It’s competing with Instagram and TikTok and everything else that’s trying to take eyeballs away from the PGA Tour as a product. So, yeah, LIV coming along has definitely had a massive impact on the game, but I think everyone who’s a professional golfer is going to benefit from it going forward.”
The Players Championship defending champion Cameron Smith was one of LIV Golf's biggest signings last year. Photo / AP
McIlroy goes out in Friday’s first round alongside the world’s No 1 and 2, Jon Rahm and Scottie Scheffler respectively. Rahm concurs with McIlroy’s view of the influence of the upstart. When asked what has instigated the changes, the Spaniard was unequivocal.
“It’s LIV Golf,” he said. “I mean, without a doubt.
“Without LIV Golf, this wouldn’t have happened. So to an extent we should be thankful this threat has made the PGA Tour want to change things. I wish it didn’t come to the PGA Tour being under fire from somebody else to make those changes and make things better for the players, but I guess it is what we needed.”
Inevitably, there has been rumblings among the rank and file on tour with the realisation that they will suddenly not be able to play in events they always did before.
As a player director on the tour board, McIlroy was closely involved in the updates and recognised the dissension.
“Some players within the membership will feel aggrieved,” he said.
But McIlroy believes many players were won around by the details presented at the early-morning gathering in the Sawgrass clubhouse.
“I think when more information and data was presented to them, the people that maybe had reservations about it, I think came around, or at least were more informed on their opinions,” McIlroy said.
“The temperature in the room was nowhere near as hot as I anticipated it to be, once the information was sort of laid out.”
However, there was one individual whose no-show was conspicuous.
James Hahn unleashed an onslaught against the changes, saying they were designed to give “more guaranteed money” to the top players in the world.
McIlroy was not impressed by Hahn’s decision to skip the 7.30am meeting.
“Like, you say all this s*** and you’re not even in the meeting?” he said. “If you want to get informed and be a part of the process … let’s just say that the fact that he wasn’t even in the room was a slap in the face to everyone there.”
For McIlroy it is simple.
“You can play your way into these designated events,” he said. “It’s up to the players. There’s one thing that changes it — shoot the scores.”
