Rory McIlroy is over all the golf infighting.
On Tuesday, the Irish star said he’s against any form of punishment for players who defected to Saudi-backed LIV Golf.
“I think it’s hard to punish people,” McIlroy said at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. “I don’t think there should be a punishment. Obviously, I’ve changed my tune on that because I see where golf is and I see that having a diminished PGA Tour and having a diminished LIV Tour or anything else is bad for both parties.
“It would be much better being together and moving forward together for the good of the game. That’s my opinion of it. So to me, the faster that we can all get back together and start to play and start to have the strongest fields possible, I think, is great for golf.”
LIV Golf will begin its 2024 season at Mayakoba in Mexico this weekend, meaning the best players in the world will not compete alongside one another.
“Guys made choices to go and play LIV; guys made choices to stay [on the PGA Tour],” McIlroy said Tuesday. “If people still have eligibility on this tour and want to come back and play, or you want to try and do something, let them come back.”
McIlory’s second try at Pebble Beach comes without five of the top 50 golfers in the world, due to LIV players not earning world ranking points.
Playing without the likes of Jon Rahm and Dustin Johnson wouldn’t make victory the same for McIlroy.
“Yeah, I’d like to win here and stand up with a trophy on 18 green and know that I’ve beaten all of the best players in the world,” he said.
Also not present at Pebble Beach is Tyrell Hatton, who scored a reported $63 million deal with LIV to join Rahm’s team.
McIlroy said he spoke with Hatton on Sunday and “completely understood” the Englishman’s jump.
“I’ve talked to him quite a bit about it over the past month. It got to the point where they negotiated and got to a place where he was comfortable with and he has to do what he feels is right for him,” McIlroy said. “So I’m not going to stand in anyone’s way from making money and if what they deem life-changing money.”
McIlory stepped down from his board position as part of the PGA Tour’s negotiations with the Saudi Public Investment Fund and Strategic Sports Group, a consortium made up of sports franchise owners.
A merger between the PGA-LIV merger was announced in June, but the negotiations has extended past the New Year’s Eve deadline, with Strategic Sports Group on the cusp of a $3 billion investment that could set the valuation of the newly created for-profit PGA Tour Enterprises at around $12 billion.
“I feel like this thing could have been over and done with months ago,” McIlroy said. “I think just for all of our sakes that the sooner that we sort of get out of it and we have a path forward, the better.”
