Speaking with reporters for the first time after the landscape-altering agreement which paired the PGA Tour with the DP World Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which backs LIV Golf, staunch Tour defender Rory McIlroy admitted he couldn’t help but feel like a “sacrificial lamb.”
McIlroy was trotted out to the microphones time and time again to defend the PGA Tour in the early days of the LIV Golf movement, doing so at the same time others like Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau departed the Tour and secured a bag of money from the Saudi Arabian-backed league.
Now that PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan agreed the Tour would partner with the same financial provider of LIV, McIlroy, who said he was never offered any money, thinks his loyal counterparts should be made whole financially.
“I mean, the simple answer is yes. The complex answer is how does that happen, right?” McIlroy told reporters at Oakdale Golf and Country Club on Wednesday, per CBS Sports’ Kyle Porter. “And that’s all gray area and up in the air at the minute.
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“But yeah, it’s hard for me to not sit up here and feel somewhat like a sacrificial lamb and, you know, feeling like I’ve put myself out there and this is what happens,” McIlroy said. “Again, removing myself from the situation, I see how this is better for the game of golf. There’s no denying that. But for me as an individual, yeah, there’s just going to have to be conversations that are had.”
While McIlroy might never had been offered money, he undoubtedly could have raked should he have been open to departing the Tour.
And he’s not alone.
LIV CEO Greg Norman confirmed Tiger Woods rejected an offer somewhere in the $700 million to $800 million range. Additional reports surfaced that Jon Rahm and Hideki Matsuyama were offered somewhere in the neighborhood of $400 million while Will Zalatoris reportedly turned down $130 million. Monopoly money was being thrown around to those who would take it, to those that would venture from their loyalty to the PGA Tour.
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While those who left the PGA Tour reportedly will have to pay a fine in order to return, and while it feels like the Tour will have to financially compensate those who stayed in some sort of way, whether those initial offers will resurface is yet to be seen.
As it relates to McIlroy, he insisted the Tour is merging with PIF, not LIV. And, though it might be difficult for some to currently view it this way, believes this is better for the sport in the long run.
“Ultimately, when I try to remove myself from the situation and look at the bigger picture and 10 years down the line, I think this is ultimately going to be good for the game of professional golf,” McIlroy said. “It unifies it and secures its financial future.”
It’s just yet to be seen what portion of those finances will be given to Tour loyalists in the short term.
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Featured image via Dan Hamilton/USA TODAY Sports Images
