Rory McIlroy Says He Would Rather Retire Than Play LIV Golf

McIlroy spoke following his round at the Scottish Open, and his current view of the PGA Tour continues to be less harsh than that of many of his PGA Tour colleagues.

NORTH BERWICK, Scotland – Rory McIlroy is not keen on being a part of LIV Golf, even if he were to be offered one of the franchises, as was proposed by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia as part of its negotiations with the PGA Tour.

When asked Thursday after the first round of the Genesis Scottish Open about the disclosure that came out Tuesday as part of a Senate hearing in Washington, D.C. on the matter, McIlroy first covered his eyes with his hands.

“If LIV Golf was the last place to play golf on earth, I would retire,’’ McIlroy said. “That’s how I feel about it.’’

He later added that he’d play the major championships “but I’d be pretty comfortable.’’

McIlroy is a member of the PGA Tour Policy Board and a leading spokesman among the players for more than a year as it attempted to push back against the LIV Golf threat.

Since the disclosure of a “framework agreement’’ reached between the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and PIF on June 6, McIlroy has grown tired of talking about it.

He did not do a pre-tournament interview in advance of the U.S. Open and declined questions on the topic there. He was not in the interview area here at the Renaissance Club, either, although after an opening-round 64 at the Renaissance Club (that has him trailing early leader Ben An by two shots), McIlroy inevitably faced the questions.

Regarding the PGA Tour's hearing before a Senate subcommittee that saw Tour COO Ron Price and board member Jimmy Dunne testify for some three hours, McIlroy said he saw only portions.

“As long as I get to play golf, I'm happy. Quite a bit of apathy towards everything at the minute,’’ McIlroy said. “There wasn’t’ a lot of new information in there for me. There was going to be some new information for other people. As I said, I’ve almost been too close the last year and a bit. So nice to be able to try to distance myself a bit.’’

Among the disclosures in the 257-page document released Tuesday as part of the Senate hearing was a list of proposals from each side. Among those that came from the PIF was one that would see McIlroy and Tiger Woods get their own LIV Golf teams – where they’d serve as team captains, get an equity stake and be asked to play 10 LIV events per year.

The proposal was not approved by the Tour nor was it included in the framework agreement, which was very short on details other than to say that PGA Tour Inc. and its 501c-6 non-profit status would remain with a new for-profit venture called PGA Tour Enterprises that would include the DP World Tour and LIV Golf.

The hearing did not provide much more detail on how the agreement might work. The two sides, however, do seem far apart on how they believe LIV Golf might look in the future.

And the question of PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan’s future still lingers. Monahan has endured the wrath of players who for more than a year where told to shun LIV Golf and the PIF, only to learn that secretly a deal was being worked out to partner with the same organization.

Both Xander Schauffele and Jordan Spieth said Wednesday that Monahan – who returns to work Monday after dealing with an undisclosed health issue for the past month – will need to regain their trust.

“Maybe not as serious for me because I sort of knew what was going on, so I wasn't quite as in the dark as some of the other guys, but yeah, people felt blindsided by it, and I can obviously understand why Jordan and Xander and a lot of other guys would feel that way,’’ said McIlroy, whose view toward the Tour is not – at least outwardly – as harsh.

“I think they were trying to do what was right for the Tour which in turn means what's right for the players on that tour. I think I read a quote, they were negotiating their survival, right? “So I think that's a very fair thing for a business to do. I think I'm apathetic toward all the noise around it. Again, as long as the tournaments that I play keep on existing, I'll be very happy to play them and be a professional golfer and try to get a little bit closer every day to try and master my craft.

“I think the thing that I've realized, no matter what I do or say or try to show leadership, I'm going to be just fine. I've tried to step up for the guys who didn't have a voice early on. But I think with everything that's transpired over the last few weeks, the players are going to find themselves more and more at the table to try to get whatever that is that they want out of it.’’