Rory McIlroy Responds to Former Agent's Suggestion That He May Sign With LIV Golf

The Ulsterman, who has softened his stance on the Saudi-backed league in recent months, smiled at the question.

So you’re saying there’s a chance?

Rory McIlroy was smiling Wednesday when he answered a question about going to LIV Golf in the future, but his answer was nonetheless interesting, even if he was joking.

The four-time major champion who had been an outspoken critic about LIV Golf before softening his stance this year in the wake of the current climate in the game was asked about comments his former agent, Chubby Chandler, had recently made suggesting he might head to LIV Golf.

“I think he’s writing a book, so there is that,” said McIlroy at PGA National, site of this week’s Cognizant (formerly Honda) Classic in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. “I spoke to Chubby, might have saw him in the Middle East at the start of the year. Never know. He might know a few things. Who knows.”

Asked about Chandler’s comments that there was a good chance he would go and was it even at 10%, McIlroy said, smiling: “Somewhere in the middle maybe, who knows.”

Rory addresses the LIV rumour pic.twitter.com/1jwQSb7r9f

— Rory Tracker (@RoryTrackr) February 28, 2024

McIlroy has outlined his PGA Tour and DP World Tour schedule for the year and LIV Golf’s 54-man roster is full for 2024, with its third event this week in Jeddah.

The recent moves by Ryder Cup teammates Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton seemed to have softened McIlroy’s views, according to Chandler, who recently did an interview with bunkered.co.uk.

“If you were being cynical, you might say he’s going to sign for about £750 million in a month’s time with LIV because he’s paving the way that LIV’s O.K. now, whereas it wasn’t,” Chandler said.

“Who knows? He doesn't need £750 million but it's odd what he's done and I'm sure it's a possibility. If he does it or not, I don't know, but if Rahm can do it, most guys can do it. I think number one, there's a 10 percent possibility he's favoring his way to sign for LIV, but he realizes that the whole bickering and fighting is no good for golf. The man in the street must find it appalling the sums of money being spoken.”

Earlier this year, McIlroy suggested that he believes the game needs to come back together. He’s proposed a “world tour” of events outside of the PGA Tour and has been open to bringing players back to the PGA Tour.

“Guys made choices to go and play LIV; guys made choices to stay here. If people still have eligibility on this tour and they want to come back and play or you want to try and do something, let them come back. I mean ... I think it's hard to punish people,” he said.

“I don't think there should be a punishment for—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.”