Rory’s Saudi stance makes him most vital golfer in world

Rory McIlroy may not get his first major win in eight years at St Andrews next week. He may never win a major again. right now, that doesn’t matter. The fact is, for a sport in crisis, he’s the most important golfer in the world. He’s the conscience of the game, the most outspoken and principled voice on the circuit.

Not just because he opposes the Saudi rebel tour, because a lot of players do that. But because he does so operating from the sport’s highest echelon and without flinching.

He never ducks a question, never misses an opportunity. He doesn’t care that he has got friends on the Saudi circuit, he is unconcerned at having been through titanic battles with them as ryder Cup team-mates.

McIlroy calls it how he sees it. And how he sees it, almost always, is spot on.

This week, four of the rebel lIV Golf Series players won a legal fight to take part in this week’s Scottish open.

Among them was Ian Poulter, a fourball partner of McIlroy’s at the ryder Cup. The pair go back decades. McIlroy didn’t falter.

‘I think if you’ve gone over to play on another tour, go and play on that tour,’ he said.

‘you’ve left all your peers behind to make money, which is fine, but stay there. Don’t try to come back. This whole having your cake and eating it is where the resentment stems from.’

He’s right, too. Having taken the Saudis’ money, Poulter and some other rebels now wish to return to the European and PGA Tours and collect from those pots, too. It isn’t fair. If the attraction of the Saudi tour is the fabulous rewards, why does the likes of Poulter then need to compete for what is on offer in Scotland this weekend?

It isn’t the first time McIlroy has been the spokesman for golf as we knew it.

When the rebels were joined by Matthew Wolff, who had previously been acclaimed as one of the most promising young players on the circuit, it was the embodiment of a malaise McIlroy had already identified. last month, he distinguished between rebel players who were approaching a career on the senior tour, and his contemporaries.

‘I believe that my best days are still ahead of me, and I think theirs are too,’ said McIlroy (right). ‘So that’s where it feels like you’re taking the easy way out. Nothing is guaranteed. you have to show up and play well to earn it.’

Well, you do on McIlroy’s tour. Wolff, at just 21, was ranked in the world’s top 20 having become the only golfer in 132 years to finish in the top five of his first two majors.

He has since dropped to world No 78. So, instead of fighting back, he has chosen the easy route: the guaranteed spoils from Saudi Arabia.

McIlroy swapped the European Tour for the PGA but, when he did, he made his life harder.

There is no comparison between trying to take on the best at some the world’s finest courses in the United States and taking lesser venues and a lesser field, but huge appearance money, no matter what it says on your card.

This is going to get nasty. The organisers of the Scottish open had to let the quartet of rebels in, but have put them in two groups of two — the rest of the field goes out in threes — in graveyard slot tee times.

And while McIlroy’s criticisms are invariably measured, others are not so careful.

American golfer Billy Horschel referred to the rebels as ‘liars and hypocrites’. United States ryder Cup captain Zach Johnson has already said no rebel players will be selected for his 2023 team.

There are few sports like golf for its history and traditions and this is what has been betrayed, for money. When Tiger Woods was asked about the breakaway, he was unequivocal. ‘I believe in legacies,’ he said. ‘I believe in major championships, big events, comparisons to historical figures.’

That is McIlroy’s point, too. What is golf if it is not taking place at venues like St Andrews, if you are not against the best? And what is any sport unless the rewards are justly earned?

It is why at the old Course next week, McIlroy would be the worthiest winner. But even if he is not, there is no one better for the game. When Sergio Garcia was whining at one of his final Tour events it was McIlroy who shot him down. ‘Finally, we get paid what we deserve,’ said Garcia. ‘We don’t deserve anything,’ replied

McIlroy. ‘We play golf.’