Rory McIlroy hopes the PGA Tour reaches an agreement with the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) behind LIV Golf.
The Tour has been in talks with PIF over a framework agreement for several months, with a deadline of the end of the year to agree a deal. However, in recent weeks, speculation has grown that other potential investors could be ready to partner with the PGA Tour instead.
The four-time Major winner was speaking on CNBC’s Halftime Report alongside chairman of Fenway Sports Group Tom Werner to discuss the TGL. McIlroy is a co-founder of the upcoming tech-infused venture, while Fenway Sports Group owns the team he will play on, Boston Common GC. However, the group has also been linked with an investment in the PGA Tour.
While Werner didn’t disclose if a deal with his company was forthcoming, McIlroy explained he would like an agreement with the Saudis to bring harmony back to the elite game. He said: "I feel like we’ve got a fractured competitive landscape right now and I would prefer if everyone sort of got back into the same boat. I think that’s the best thing for golf."
The emergence of LIV Golf in 2022 drove a wedge through the top of the game, with many PGA Tour players receiving suspensions after signing for the circuit. Meanwhile, McIlroy was as big a defender of the PGA Tour as he was a critic of LIV Golf. Even after the truce between the PGA Tour and PIF was announced, McIlroy declared: “I still hate LIV” and said he hopes and expects it to “go away.”
However, he reiterated that an agreement with the PIF is the best way to repair the fractures in the elite game. He continued: “I would hope when we go through this process, the PIF are the ones that are involved in the framework agreement.
"Obviously, there’s been other suitors that have been involved and offering their services and their help. But hopefully, when this is all said and done, I sincerely hope that the PIF are involved and we can bring the game of golf back together."
McIlroy also offered more details on what he hopes the TGL, which is being launched in partnership with the PGA Tour, will entail. He said: “We’re trying to bring the game of golf into the 21st century.
"I think a lot of people will connect with the fact that we’re playing indoors. It’ll look nothing like traditional golf. It’ll look more like an NBA game, hopefully, and sort of trying to give people in the arena that courtside experience."
Those are innovations McIlroy hopes go far enough to differentiate it from traditional tours, which he is not convinced LIV Golf has achieved. At a press conference for his TGL team the same day as his CNBC appearance, McIlroy said he thinks “LIV Golf is caught in no man’s land” because of the nature of its innovations.
