Rory McIlroy Says New York City Meeting Between PGA Tour, Saudi PIF Is 'Peculiar Timing'

Golf's rival factions are reportedly meeting for multiple days around 9/11. McIlroy also said December's match with Bryson DeChambeau is an example of how the sides could come together.

Rory McIlroy is a member of a committee tasked with unifying the game but is playing the Irish Open instead of attending meetings reportedly happening in New York City. / Christopher Hanewinckel-Imagn Images

BOLINGBROOK, Ill. — Rory McIlroy expressed surprise Wednesday at the timing of meetings taking place between the leaders of golf’s divided factions, but said the reason behind a December exhibition between players on both sides was to try and show the world the possibilities going forward.

Speaking ahead of the DP World Tour’s Irish Open at Royal County Down, McIlroy discussed the match he disclosed last week that would see him and Scottie Scheffler of the PGA Tour play against LIV Golf’s Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka.

Specific details have yet to be officially announced and the PGA Tour—which would need to approve McIlroy and Scheffler's participation due to media rights issues—has yet to comment.

“I wouldn't say it's meant to send a message. It's more we wanted to do something that, I guess, all golf fans could get excited about,” McIlroy said. “You've got the best player in the world. You've got two guys in Bryson and Brooks that have won majors in the last two years. You've got me in there who—I haven't done what those guys have done the last couple years but I've definitely been I feel one of the best players in the world.

“It's a way to show golf fans in the world that this is what could happen or these are the possibilities going forward. I've been saying this for a long time. I think golf and golf fans get to see us together more than four times a year.

“I think that's what we've tried to do. It's in the middle of December. There's not a lot going on in the game of golf. So trying to get people excited about something before the season starts again. I think we all thought it was a good idea and something that hopefully is a sign of things to come in the future.”

McIlroy expressed frustration two weeks ago at the Tour Championship over the lack of progress in talks between the PGA Tour and the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, which funds LIV Golf.

The two sides resumed talking this week although details about who is involved have not been disclosed.

The meetings are reportedly this week in New York City and Wednesday is the 23rd anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that occurred at the World Trade Center. The alleged Saudi Arabian involvement in those attacks—15 of the 19 9/11 terrorists were from Saudi Arabia—has been among the uneasy issues facing LIV Golf in the United States and elsewhere.

“It's certainly peculiar timing,” McIlroy said. “I don't know much about the talks that are going on. I know that there is but that's not something that I'm a part of.

“I think we are all in the game of golf trying to look for a solution to all this and try to move forward. So we'll see, yeah. I know as much as you do at this point, and I'm sure news will start to trickle out here in the next few days.”

McIlroy is no longer a member of the PGA Tour Policy Board, but he was named earlier this year to a “transaction” committee along with Tiger Woods and Adam Scott that includes PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan along with others who were to be negotiating directly with the PIF.

Neither Woods nor Scott attended the meetings in person.

DeChambeau, who is playing in the LIV Golf Chicago event this week, was asked about the December match and said that he did not speak with McIlroy directly, that his representatives handled the talks, and that he is only aware of two potential venues in Las Vegas in December.

“We are just hoping to have fun and show people what things could look like going forward,” he said. “We’d like to see the game come back together in some way and we’ll see if this helps at all.”