TOUR NEEDS “STREAMLINING”: MCILROY

RORY McIlroy believes golf fans and players are becoming exhausted by a constant 49 weeks-a-year diet of tournament golf and schedules need to be “streamlined” as a result.

The World No.1 added that the current schedules of the PGA and European Tours was “an over-saturation in golf” and he would welcome more no cut events with smaller fields.

Talking on the eve of the Arnold Palmer Invitational last month, he put forward his ideas after being asked if the proposed Premier Golf League would spark the PGA Tour to act on restructuring its schedule.

“I don’t want to come across as elitist,” McIlroy said. “But I think some smaller fields, maybe a few more events with no cuts. Look at the international properties the PGA Tour have started to go towards, like Korea and Japan, with 78-player fields and no cuts.

“I get so many playing opportunities, there are so many tournaments and there might be an over-saturation in golf in a way. You look at the NFL and they play 16 games a year, 20 games a year max and people want it all the time.

“I know football is different to golf and all that, but I think being a golf fan these days can get quite exhausting following so many different tournaments, different Tours, all that stuff.

“So maybe making it a little more streamline, it a bit might be a good way to start a conversation.”

A fortnight earlier, McIlroy ruled himself definitely out of joining the breakaway Premier Golf League.

“The more I’ve thought about it, the more I don’t like it,” he said on the eve of the WGC Mexico Championship. “The one thing as a professional golfer in my position that I value is the fact that I have autonomy and freedom over everything that I do. I pick and choose, and this is a perfect example. Some guys this week made the choice to not come to Mexico, but if you go and play this other golf league, you’re not going to have that choice.

“I read a thing the other day where it said if you take the money they can tell you what to do, so if you don’t take the money, they can’t tell you what to do. And I think that’s my thing, I’ve never been one for being told what to do, and I like to have that autonomy and freedom over my career, and I feel like I would give that up by going to play this other league.

“For me, I’m out. My position is I’m against it until there may come a day that I can’t be against it. If everyone else goes, I might not have a choice, but at this point, yeah, I don’t like what they’re proposing.”

” I THINK BEING A GOLF FAN THESE DAYS CAN GET QUITE EXHAUSTING FOLLOWING SO MANY DIFFERENT TOURNAMENTS, DIFFERENT TOURS, ALL THAT STUFF.”