McIlroy slams breakaway cash-grab
Rory rejects ‘money grab’
RORY McILROY has dismissed the proposed Saudi-backed Super Golf League as a greed-driven “money grab”.
And McIlroy predicts the plan will crash and burn in the same way as football’s European Super League.
Top players including World No.1 Dustin Johnson, right, have been threatened with expulsion from the PGA Tour and European Tour if they sign the multi-million pound contracts on the table to join the breakaway league, which is scheduled to launch next autumn. But McIlroy counted himself out last night, saying there is more to top-level sport than just cash.
He said: “You saw what happened with the European Super League. The top 12 clubs got together and said, ‘Let’s keep more of the money for ourselves’. And people didn’t like that. It affects competition, it affects the integrity of competition.
“People can see this for what it is, which is a money grab, which is fine if what you’re playing golf for is to make as much money as possible. Totally fine. Go and do that if that’s what makes you happy.
“But I’m playing to try to cement my place in history and my legacy and to win Majors and to win the biggest tournaments in the world.
“The game of golf, whether it’s a right thing or a wrong thing, is about history.
“We still talk about Gene Sarazen, Walter Hagen, Ben Hogan and all those guys because that’s what this game is. It’s steeped in history and the legacies that those guys have. If you move further away from that, you’re basically losing the essence of what competitive golf is. I just can’t see how it happens.”
The Saudis have lodged a £70million bid for the Asian Tour and tried to buy the European Tour last year before the organisation signed up to an alliance with the PGA Tour. “Golf has been good to me, playing in Europe starting off, then coming to the PGA Tour,” said McIlroy, who plays in his first tournament since The Masters at the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow today. “The structure in golf gives everyone a chance to have a great week and change their lives. “You go through past winners here, like Derek Ernst in 2013, and that’s a life-changing week for him. He wouldn’t have that chance if something like the SGL got off the ground.
“I’m against it. I don’t see why anyone would be for it.”