According to Rory McIlroy, golf might take a cue from football and reunite the PGA Tour and LIV Golf division with a Champions League-style competition.
The top players from the PGA Tour and LIV Golf could collaborate more frequently if professional golf adopted a Champions League-style structure, according to Rory McIlroy.
At the start of the breakaway tour in 2022, McIlroy fiercely defended the PGA Tour against LIV Golf, snatching up several of the world’s best players on mega-money contracts.
However, the Northern Irishman has recently changed his mind, leaving his position on the policy board after the PGA Tour and the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund, LIV’s backers, came to a framework agreement for their merger.
Although the negotiations are still ongoing and the game is still split, McIlroy has given up the fight, as Jon Rahm’s dramatic transfer to LIV in December demonstrated that the breakaway league is here to stay. When he stated that LIV players ought to be allowed to return and compete in specific PGA Tour events without facing consequences, four-time major champion Rory McIlroy infuriated some of his PGA Tour colleagues.
But after spending so much time resisting acknowledging LIV’s expanding role in the game, he is now determined to advocate for the top-tier reunification of the sport. After his third round at The Genesis Invitational in Los Angeles on Saturday, he discussed a possible coexistence model between LIV and the PGA Tour that would also encourage more frequent competition between the best players.
According to McIlroy, “I think you would just create a Tour for the top 80 players in the world.” Everything seems to lead up to that one, in my opinion. From my perspective, it would resemble European football’s Champions League.
“That kind of sits above the other leagues, and then all those leagues kind of feed up into that, and that’s how I think of it—the best of the best play against each other in the Champions League.”
While LIV has a more international schedule this season with events in Hong Kong, Australia, Singapore, and Spain, the PGA Tour has come under fire in recent years for not giving priority to other markets outside of the United States. Although McIlroy thinks the PGA Tour should continue to be centered in the US, there is room to expand its foundation abroad.
He clarified, “You have to take that into account. This is the biggest golf market in the world.” However, there’s no reason why we can’t travel farther and play in some of those major markets during other times of the year.
“I believe it would be advantageous for the tour as a whole, media partners, sponsors, and everyone else, in addition to those markets and those fans.”
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