Golf has been divided after the formation of LIV Golf, with the PGA Tour holding talks in a bid to join forces and striking an agreement that is yet to be finalised – with Rory McIlroy walking away from his role at the organisation
Rory McIlroy has insisted he is unmoved about the divide between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf after stepping down from his role within the organisation, declaring “I don’t care” when asked about the situation. McIlroy is on a high after winning his first Masters green jacket and believes leaving his role as player director on the PGA Tour’s policy board has contributed towards his success.
The sport has been fractured by the introduction of LIV Golf, spearheaded by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, with a handful of top players controversially deciding to join the breakaway competition.
There have been efforts to get the two groups to join forces and a framework agreement was signed in June 2023 but it is yet to be finalised and McIlroy left his role shortly after.
With McIlroy now focusing totally on golf, he has gone from strength to strength on the fairway. At the start of this season, he won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am before winning his second Players Championship title. He then enjoyed the biggest triumph of his career at Augusta to join an elite group of players who have won all five Majors.
The Irishman was asked if leaving his role at the PGA Tour has helped elevate his form and cleared his mind, given that his decision led to him enjoying so much success.
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A reporter said: “In September, you seemed to step further back from the LIV debate, discussion, and it seemed that’s when it started to click.
“I think you went second, second, then you won The Players, which I think is probably the toughest tournament to win, and the Masters. Do you think there’s a correlation there? Is your mind clearer?”
McIlroy replied: “I think so. “Certainly not involved too much in the politics of everything. And even just not being involved with… being on the board of this Tour and even just talking about changes to the Tour Championship and all that.I have no idea what’s going on, and I think at this point, I don’t care.”
It came after McIlroy competed at the Truist Championship in North Carolina, ending the second round seven under par in fourth place.
He admitted it was a “scrappy” performance but vowed to push on and cut out the mistakes, bidding to return to his form from the first part of the year.
“I felt like today was another sort of scrappy one. I made what I feel are some uncharacteristic mistakes compared to how I’ve played the majority of the year.
“So just got to try to iron that out over the next couple of days, try to shoot a couple of scores without as many bogeys on the card.”
