Rory McIlroy shot 70 in his first round of the Memorial on Thursday. Photo: Getty Images/Andy Lyons
Rory McIlroy has had a tough time. layout, which is here in the village of Muirfield, before heading to the highly anticipated meeting between the PGA Tour and the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund, which could one day become a defining moment in the civil war of the professional men's game.
As is the Memorial Tournament in windy weather, the decisive negotiations had to develop around self-preservation.
The first meeting between the respective parties was due to take place in New York later on Friday, McIlroy contacted us via video call after he shot a commendable 71, moved into three-man play and entered contention with the US Open still to go just one week.
Tiger Woods and Adam Scott were due to attend in person, as well as PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund manager Yasser Al-Rumayyan and John Henry, owner of Liverpool Football Club, who heads a consortium that has already invested more than £1 billion direct investment in the Tour's new commercial entity.
A year and a day after the announcement of a “framework agreement” with the Tour and PIF – LIV's sponsors – that rocked the game, they were finally in the same room, albeit without participation in the DP world tour, which has to rely on Monahan to protect Wentworth's interests.
Despite reports of “player power” at the Tour's policy council, McIlroy claims he, Woods and Scott had to mostly watch because “it's a big boy thing.”
”Will In this room needs to have people on the PGA Tour side that will take the lead,” McIlroy said. “And it won’t be Adam, Tiger or me. That would be Jay, Joe Gorder [PGA Tour chairman of the board], Joe Ogilvy [former Tour professional and now player relations specialist] and John Henry. These will be businessmen.
“We're here to maybe give a player's perspective. This is an investment negotiation for PGA Tour Enterprises, that's a big boy deal. And I will definitely listen more than I talk.”
“However, the political council, in which elected players have a majority of votes, will ultimately have the final say if the deal goes through. McIlroy, who initially thought LIV would be included in the new order, now believes the Tour will have to live in harmony for there to be peace.
“I certainly don’t see LIV slowing down in the next couple of years,” McIlroy said. “They are buying office space in New York. They have over 200 employees. I don't see a world where – and I haven't heard any of these guys say – that they don't want to play there either, right? There are guys who have contracts until 2028, 2029.
“In a few years, LIV will continue on its own path. But hopefully there will be more cooperation or understanding between tours. Perhaps there is some cross-pollination so players can start playing both. I think all of this will be talked about in the coming weeks.”
The importance of this summit is so great that McIlroy actually considered flying to New York immediately after this round, which featured three birdies and three bogeys. But he changed his mind, perhaps because it was going to be a long night.
“The scenario is obviously complex – the US Department of Justice would still have to give its approval, and McIlroy talked about the possibility of a PIF have “passive investments” – but he hopes for a solution.”
“My position on some LIV issues has softened,” McIlroy said. “They have a contract for 14 tournaments, but the other 38 weeks of the year you are free to do what you want. The only thing is that there are so many golf tours and tournaments here. There are only a certain number of weeks in a year. This is the hardest part. We are trying to find out what tournaments are held and where, when we play them, how many players, what kind of players?”
The summit was timely because not only were nine of the top 10 players in the world here at the tournament. The memorial field cost $20 million (£15.7 million), but LIV held the event in Houston on a budget of $25 million (£19.6 million). There are 12 rebels who have qualified for the US Open at Pinehurst, but Patrick Reed is not one of them as the American's streak of 41 consecutive major tournament appearances comes to an end. Reed blames the world ranking system, which has dropped him to 100th place.
“I feel like the world rankings are not a reflection of where I should be and what competitions I should be competing in.” , – he said. Since the start of 2023, Reed has competed in 11 non-LIV tournaments and has four top-10 finishes and seven top-25 finishes, including a fourth-place finish at last year's Masters. “If these events had been moved into the regular season, there is no doubt that I would have ended up in the majors,” he said. “I'll be in the top 20, maybe top 15 in the world.”
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