Mcilroy wants PGA Tour to take over Europe

Rory Mcilroy might be absent here this week but he caused a stir on the first day of the Tour Championship by declaring that the PGA Tour should buy its European counterpart and so swallow up his home circuit.

The Ulsterman missed out on the chance of defending the Fedex Cup when failing to finish in the top-30 standings. But Mcilroy is playing at next week’s British Masters in Newcastle and the reaction from the European Tour chief executive, Keith Pelley, might be interesting.

“The World Tour – it’s going to happen one day, and I think it has to,” Mcilroy told the No Laying Up podcast. “To have all these tours competing against each other, and having to change dates, it’s counterproductive. I think everyone has to come together. The easy thing would be for the PGA Tour to buy the European Tour. They could still run the European events, and we’ll have, say, 12 big events a year, outside the majors, a bit like they do in tennis. I don’t see any other way. I know discussions have taken place, so maybe one day.”

It is understood the European

World vision: Rory Mcilroy says the best option would be a new global golf tour Tour rejected an approach from the PGA Tour in 2013. And since then Pelley has made it clear he wants to establish “a viable alternative” to the US for the young Europeans, with the Rolex Series – an eightstrong series of $7million (£5.15million) events – aiming to make the circuit more attractive. However, the power of the PGA Tour cannot be doubted and this domination is certainly showing a parallel inside the ropes at this event.

Eight of the top 10 after the first round are playing under the Stars and Stripes with only England’s Paul Casey and Spain’s Jon Rahm breaking up the monotony on the leaderboard. Casey shot a fourunder 66 to stand in the group in second – which also includes US Open champion Brooks Koepka – two behind pacesetter Kyle Stanley. Casey, 40, is in 10th place in the standings and if he were to win the Tour Championship, he would have a chance of the $10million Fedex Cup jackpot.

“It’s a tall order from 10th place to get this thing done this week and I’m going to need a lot of guys to make some errors,” Casey admitted. “But I’m going to give it a damn good try.”

Rivals Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas are both in a tie for sixth on three-under. Justin Rose – eighth in the standings – started with a 68.