Piers Morgan has praised Rory McIlroy for taking a moral stance against LIV Golf after the PGA Tour announced a shock merger with the breakaway tour.
The PGA Tour had been embroiled in a bitter legal dispute with LIV Golf after the Saudi Arabia-backed tour lured its players with huge contracts. But the future of the sport has now been altered with the announcement that the two tours will join forces in a controversial move, which is now under review by the US Justice Department.
That news came as a huge shock to McIlroy, who was not informed of the major development before it broke on Tuesday. He has been steadfast in his support of the PGA Tour and even rejected a £400million offer to jump ship to join LIV Golf, which can offer huge contracts because it is backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.
McIlroy was reportedly furious with PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, who was lambasted in an angry expletive-filled meeting at the Canadian Open. The Northern Irishman will now be placed in an awkward position, given his outspoken stance on LIV Golf – something Morgan believes he deserves credit for.
He tweeted: “Can’t imagine how @McIlroyRory is feeling after @PGATOUR boss Jay Monahan renounced all his supposed moral principles, incl playing the 9/11 card to emotionally blackmail his players, before jumping into bed with LIV. But Rory was true to himself, and that’s a priceless quality.”
Monahan was asked on Tuesday if he regretted not speaking with players like McIlroy and Tiger Woods before signing the deal, he said: “Listen, again, what we've agreed to here is a framework agreement, and the binding elements are tied to the litigation. A lot of these details we've got to work through.
“If we had announced a definitive agreement this morning and I was calling them in the morning and I had made commitments on behalf of the PGA Tour and not had an opportunity to fully vet them with our policy board and with those two individuals in a larger group, then that would be a complete miss on my part, and I recognize that.
“But this was us reaching a framework agreement. We think it's the right agreement. Obviously Tiger and Rory's perspective is one that I understand very well, and it was part of my thinking throughout these conversations, and it will be a part of my thinking going forward.
“Now that we're in a framework agreement, I look forward to talking to all of our players, including the two of them, to make certain that this comes off the right way.”
Monahan is under huge pressure for the way he agreed the deal with LIV Golf, having previously been vehemently opposed to it. A group representing 9/11 victims has accused him of “co-opting the 9/11 community” and said the PGA Tour should be “ashamed of their hypocrisy and greed”.
