McIlroy debunks rumors; Norman claims unanimous support for LIV
AUGUSTA, Ga. — This wasn’t the kind of attention Rory McIlroy was hoping for on the day after the Masters.
A London financial paper, City A.M., cited anonymous sources as saying McIlroy was believed to be close to an $850 million deal to join LIV Golf. The publication did not say how the sources would know. That set off speculation and innuendo across the internet.
McIlroy was able to shut it down when he arrived at the RBC Heritage.
“I honestly don’t know how these things get started,” McIlroy told Golf Channel from the range at Harbour Town. “I’ve never been offered a number from LIV and I’ve never contemplated going to LIV. I think I’ve made it clear over the past two years that I don’t think it’s something for me.”
He most recently said that at Bay Hill last month.
McIlroy said he won’t judge players going to LIV if they feel that’s what it is best for them. He also expressed anew how important it is to have the top players come together more often than the four majors. And he believes some PGA Tour players are still contemplating going over to the Saudi-funded tour. It’s just not for him.
“I’ll play the PGA Tour the rest of my career,” he said.
He wasn’t the only person getting plenty of attention involving LIV Golf. The commissioner and CEO, Greg Norman, spent three days at the Masters and made his presence felt at every turn.
Norman acquired a ticket to watch like any other spectator — presumably the 104 tickets available to the 13 LIV players in the Masters already were taken — and raved about the reception he received.
Norman took to social media to thank “the hundreds if not thousands of people” for what he called “unanimous support.”
“My right hand is sore from shaking hands with each and every one of you as well as the hugs given to so many,” Norman wrote.
THE DRIVE FOR FIVE
Nelly Korda has more than a major championship at stake this week in The Chevron Championship. She will try to join Nancy Lopez and Annika Sorenstam as the only women to win five straight tournaments on the LPGA Tour.
Korda would be more similar to Sorenstam than Lopez, and not just because the fifth in a row would come at the LPGA’s first major of the year. There also was a significant gap.
Sorenstam won twice at the end of the 2004 season — Japan, a week off, and then the ADT Championship. She skipped the 2005 season opener in Hawaii and then reeled off the next three tournaments on the schedule, capped by winning the Kraft Nabisco Championship.
Korda won the Drive On Championship in Bradenton, Florida, in January, and then skipped the entire Asia swing, taking a seven-week break. She returned to win in Los Angeles, the Phoenix area and then captured her fourth in a row at the Match Play in Las Vegas.
Lopez won her five straight in a six-week span in 1978. She started with three wins in three weeks, skipped the Peter Jackson Classic in Canada and then won the LPGA Championship and the following week in New York.
Korda is the first to win four straight tournaments since Lorena Ochoa won four straight in four weeks by seven shots, five shots, 11 shots and three shots. She took a week off and then tied for fifth at Cedar Ridge in Tulsa, Oklahoma, five shots out of the lead.
MAJOR BOOST
The Chevron Championship pledged to upgrade the first LPGA major of the year, and it took a big step Tuesday. It announced a purse increase to $7.9 million, up from $5.2 million. The prize money has gone up $4.8 million in the three years that Chevron has been title sponsor.
The winner will get $1.2 million.