CAN WE LIV TOGETHER?
Rory desperate to reunify game but says: ‘I don’t think there’s been much progress over the last eight months’
RORY MCILROY wants to return to the PGA Tour policy board this week to drive through a unification deal with the Saudi Public Investment Fund.
The world No.2 was the leading critic of LIV Golf until last June’s shock “framework agreement” between the two warring sides.
He quit his role on the board in November after admitting he felt like a “sacrificial lamb” and now supports a peace deal to see the PIF invest in the PGA Tour.
Tiger Woods (right) reported “positive” talks in the Bahamas last month with Newcastle chairman and PIF governor Yasir Al-rumayyan but an agreement is still to be struck. Now Mcilroy is ready to replace Webb Simpson on the policy board – he still needs unanimous approval to return – and get involved in talks.
“I don’t think there’s been much progress made in the last eight months, and I was hopeful that there would be,” he said. “I think I could be helpful to the process. I feel like I care a lot, and I have some pretty good experience and good connections within the game. I’m willing to do it if that’s what people want.”
Viewing figures are down 20 percent on the PGA Tour this season with many stars, like world No.3 Jon Rahm, signing for the rebel LIV tour.
Mcilroy has claimed Alrumayyan wanted to do the “right thing” with PIF’S investment in golf. Asked if he will seek unification, the four-time Major winner said: “Absolutely, yeah. I think it’s the only way forward for the game of golf.
“I want compromise but you also have to try to articulate your points as well as you can and try to help people see the benefits of what unification could do for the game and what it could do for this tour. We all need to move forward together.”
Speaking before LIV Adelaide, CEO Greg Norman insisted he had never made Mcilroy an offer but said: “If Rory was willing to sit down and have a conversation with us, would we be happy to sit down with him, 100 percent, no different to any other player who would be interested in playing with us.”
Mcilroy last week again pledged his future to the PGA Tour and is set to receive equity in the new for-profit company set up with the initial $1.5bn investment from the Strategic Sports Group - a consortium including Liverpool owners Fenway Sports. The Ulsterman is set to be awarded shares worth up to $50million, with Woods getting closer to $100m.
About $1billion will be allocated to players although the vast majority will go to the top 36 who are most likely to defect to LIV. The value of the shares would rocket if a peace deal is done.
Speaking before his first appearance at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans – he will partner Shane Lowry – Mcilroy was asked if the equity payments were enough.
“I think the one thing we’ve learned in golf over the last two years is there’s never enough,” he said.
Mcilroy and Lowry are 15-2 second favourites in New Orleans behind Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele.
Tiger Woods reported ‘positive’ talks in the Bahamas last month