Tiger Woods isn’t the only high-profile player to recently join President Donald Trump for a round of golf.
Rory McIlroy revealed Wednesday at the Genesis Invitational at Torrey Pines that he played golf with Trump last month in South Florida, shortly before Inauguration Day. Among the on-course topics that day was, unsurprisingly, the ongoing negotiations between the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which funds LIV Golf.
“I thought we had a good discussion,” said McIlroy, who also spent time during Wednesday’s pro-am at Torrey with Donald Trump Jr. and his daughter, Kai, a Miami golf commit. “I learned that he’s not a fan of the LIV format. I was like, ‘But you’ve hosted their events.’ He was like, ‘Yeah, but it doesn’t mean that I like it.’ So, I think he’s on the Tour’s side.”
McIlroy’s round preceded a meeting last week at the White House between Trump and two PGA Tour representatives, commissioner Jay Monahan and player director Adam Scott, as well as Woods’ round with Trump last Sunday.
Asked what Trump can do to expedite a deal, McIlroy responded, “He can do a lot of things.”
“He has direct access to [PIF governor] Yasir [Al-Rumayyan]’s boss; not many people have that,” McIlroy said. “Not many people can say, ‘I want you to get this deal done, and by the way, I’m speaking to your boss, I’m going to tell him the same thing.’ There are a few things that he can do. He can be influential. He loves the game of golf. … I was playing with Sheik Hamdan [bin Mohammed Al Maktoum] of Abu Dhabi the day when [Trump] got elected in November, and the respect he has in the Middle East is – I don’t think people appreciate how much respect that he has there.
“So, I think whenever he says something, they listen, and I think that’s a big thing.”
McIlroy expounded on what a potential agreement between the two sides could entail, including the challenges that come with reunifying men’s professional golf. Currently, there are stars on LIV Golf who signed massive contracts, some worth nine figures, and then stars on the PGA Tour, who remained loyal but, as McIlroy noted, also have benefitted financially from LIV coming along.
For McIlroy, the easy part is welcoming LIV members back – and without penalty.
“Whether you stayed on the PGA Tour or you left, we have all benefited from this,” McIlroy said. “I’ve been on the record saying this a lot, like we’re playing for a $20 million prize fund this week. That would have never happened if LIV hadn’t have come around. I think everyone’s just got to get over it, and we all have to say, OK, this is the starting point, and we move forward. We don’t look behind us, we don’t look to the past. Whatever’s happened has happened, and it’s been unfortunate, but reunification, how we all come back together and move forward, that’s the best thing for everyone.
“If people are butt hurt or have their feelings hurt because guys went or whatever, like who cares?”
Perhaps more complicated is what the competitive landscape looks like post-deal. McIlroy contends that it’s unlikely, though not impossible, that LIV players would be able cherry-pick a few of their favorite PGA Tour stops to play each year while keeping a full schedule on LIV. One option, he says, is the PGA Tour doing what it’s done with DP World Tour events and co-sanctioning with LIV on some of its most successful tournaments, like this week’s LIV Adelaide.
Or McIlroy asks, “Do they (LIV) take up a smaller part of the schedule?”
Perhaps, he adds, with LIV fully leaning into a head-to-head team format, like it does for its team championship.
“Instead of that maybe being once a year and then these stroke-play events, could you reduce the stroke-play events and do more of that a few times a year?” McIlroy said. “I think that is a way because especially if these guys are going to come back and play – I don’t want to say real, they play real golf – but more like championship individual golf, then is there more of an opportunity for these teams to go more head to head because I think that makes for a more
compelling product, at least in my eyes.”
McIlroy just doesn’t want any tour crossover on his part.
“I hope not,” McIlroy said.
