RORY: SPORT’S ALL ABOUT LEGACY , NOT CURRENCY

Rory’s message to Saudi rebels as he targets fifth Major at Brookline

RORY McILROY insists he is more interested in his legacy than currency as he took aim at Phil Mickelson and his band of LIV Golf rebels.

The four-time Major champ is looking to add to his haul at the US Open at Brookline in Massachusetts this week.

The tournament has been overshadowed by golf ’s civil war – the mega-money LIV Golf series kicked off in London last week with big-hitting Bryson DeChambeau (right) the latest big-name defector.

But McIlroy, poster boy for the PGA Tour, said: “I hope I’m still building on my legacy. In golfing terms, I’m still youngish, even though I’ve been out here for a long time. I’ve basically spent half my life on tour.

“It’s very important to me. It means a lot, going back to history and tradition and putting your name on trophies that have the legends of the game on them. That’s really cool and that’s something that money can’t buy.

“Legacy, reputation – at the end of the day that’s all you have. You strip everything away and you’re left with how you made people feel and what people thought of you.”

McIlroy, who hasn’t won a Major since 2014, claimed the Saudi golf move was dead in the water back in February – but he admitted he was wrong to trust some of his PGA pals who had previously vowed they wouldn’t jump ship.

He said: “I guess I took a lot of players’ statements at face value. I guess that’s what I got wrong.

“You had people committed to the

PGA Tour and that’s what their statements said. People went back on that so

I guess I took them for face value. I took them at their word and I was wrong.”

McIlroy (in practice yesterday, top) refused to accuse the breakaway bunch of taking part in Saudi sportswashing – but he insisted they will need to look at themselves in the mirror. He said: “I don’t think they’re totally complicit in it. They all have the choice to play where they want to play, and they’ve made their decision.

“My dad said to me a long time ago that, once you make your bed, you lie in it, and they’ve made their bed. They have to live with that.”

Mickelson (in his Brookline press conference on Monday, below) says he has no regrets despite copping flak from all angles.

When asked if he’s lost respect for the Californian, McIlroy said: “As a golfer I have the utmost respect for Phil.

“I’ve been disappointed with how he has gone about what he has done, but I think he has come back and shown some remorse about how he has handled some things so I think he has learned from that.

“Who am I to sit here and give Phil a lesson on how to do things?

“He has had a wonderful career. He is his own man. He is a great addition to the field this week.”