Tiger was my hero, his skin colour didn’t matter – McIlroy

RORY McILROY has backed an “amazing” drive to bring an end to racism in the wake of George Floyd’s death in the USA.

The world number one golfer was speaking on the eve of the PGA Tour’s return to action and in the wake of the global protests sparked by Mr Floyd’s death.

Police officer Derek Chauvin had knelt on the 46-year-old’s neck for over eight minutes after he was arrested outside a shop in Minneapolis on May 25. Chauvin has since been charged with murder. In response, Black Lives Matter protests have been held across the globe to rail against what is seen as systematic racism and McIlroy has given his backing to a drive for change.

“I think everyone can be a bit more tolerant, a little more educated and not as ignorant,” he said. “There has never been a place in society for what has gone on in the world over the past however many hundreds of years. The fact that it does seem to be this real will to change and have reform is amazing.”

McIlroy, and the PGA Tour, is returning to action today at the Charles Schwab Invitational.

The event will hold a minute’s silence at 8.46am, to mark the length of time – eight minutes and 46 seconds – that the officer’s knee was held on George Floyd’s neck. The 8.46am tee-time will also be left unused.

“What the PGA Tour has done is a wonderful gesture,” added McIlroy.

“My hero growing up was Tiger Woods. Tiger doesn’t look the same as me and had a very different upbringing to the one I had but he was my hero. It didn’t matter what colour his skin was or what his beliefs were, Tiger was my hero.

“He’s been a lot of kids’ heroes, who have grown up playing golf.

“We’ve been very lucky to have him in our game and I think there should be more people like him in golf. Harold Varner (fellow PGA Tour player) said it is about the players, it’s about everyone in the game of golf.

“There are so many people involved and as long as we continue to give people from different backgrounds opportunities to be involved in golf then that can only be a good thing.”

BEFORE the break in Tour action began at the end of March, McIlroy was on a run of seven top five finishes in a row.

However, he says he doesn’t feel hard-done-by after the lay-off and revealed he got up to speed by playing ‘money games’ against the likes of Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas and Shane Lowry near his home in Florida.

“There’s no reason why I’m not still (the world’s number one golfer),” he said. “It actually gave me an opportunity to work on a few things. My game seems to be there but the first couple of days here will be the real test. I’ll learn a lot about myself and my game.”

The two-and-a-half month stoppage caused an almost total revamping of the 2020 golfing calendar. Much cooperation was required between the sport’s leading bodies, such as the PGA Tour, European Tour, R&A and the Augusta National GC.

McIlroy (right) is hoping the collaboration can pave the way to more joined-up thinking and even revealed that he would back a move to unite golf ’s two major tours.

Earlier this year, an outside body called the Premier Golf League attempted to overhaul the structure of the sport at the top level. However, their plans involving separating the world’s top 48 players into something of a closed shop and, as such, were given short shrift by McIlroy in his typical forthright manner.

Now McIlroy says he would welcome a move to bring golf under ‘fewer umbrellas’, providing it was done under the current regimes rather than as a breakaway.

“I’ve been calling for it (a World Tour) for a while,” he said. “I would like to see that. I think for the health of both tours, a World Tour is something I’ve always wanted but it had to be done the right way.

“I think the PGL coming in and trying to do it their way wasn’t the right thing.”

McIlroy tees off at Colonial CC in today’s opening round at 7.06pm Irish time, playing in a world’s-topthree trio alongside Jon Rahm and Brooks Koepka.

Open Champion Shane Lowry begins at 2.18pm Irish time, while world number 49 Graeme McDowell tees off his first round at 1.34pm.