Rory McIlroy has warned his fellow golf stars that have defected to the controversial Saudi-backed LIV Golf series about chasing ‘boatloads of cash’ ahead of the inaugural event in London this weekend.
LIV Golf will stage their first three-day, 54-hole event at The Centurion Club near St Albans from Thursday amid a build-up littered with controversy and infighting. On Wednesday, Bryson DeChambeau, Patrick Reed and Rickie Fowler became the latest stars set to join the lucrative series, whose first event has a purse worth £20million while the series’ total purse is around £200m.
The field for the event will see the likes of six-time major champion Phil Mickelson and former World No. 1 Dustin Johnson compete against Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood, Graeme McDowell, Louis Oosthuizen, Charr Schwartzel, Branden Grace and Kevin Na for eye-watering sums of money. Players that resigned their membership could be barred from competing at majors, and Johnson - who won the 2016 US Open and the 2020 Masters - officially resigned his PGA Tour membership in order to play in the LIV Golf series.
It means the American will be ineligible for the Ryder Cup, although he could still compete in majors. The United States Golf Association (USGA) recently announced that players competing in the LIV Golf Series would still be able to take part at next week’s US Open at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts.
McIlroy has been a vocal critic of LIV Golf and has no plans to join, while he warned those taking part are simply motivated by ‘boatloads of cash’ rather than the will to win. The 33-year-old fired veiled shots at those who joined the divisive series by suggesting it defines their respective ‘goals and ambitions’.
“I think my stance on it has been pretty clear from the start,” McIlroy said. “It’s not something that I want to participate in. I certainly understand the guys that went, I understand what their goals and ambitions are in their life.
“I’m certainly not knocking anyone for going. It’s their life, it’s their decision, they can live it the way they want to.
“But for me, I want to play on the PGA Tour against the best players in the world. I think for me, speaking to a few people yesterday, one of the comments was any decision that you make in your life that’s purely for money, usually doesn’t end up going the right way.
“Obviously money is a deciding factor in a lot of things in this world, but if it’s purely for money it never seems to go the way you want it to.”
McIlroy lamented the lack of an incentive to play well if the money is already secured, adding: “We all know why everyone’s playing in London this week, it’s boatloads of cash and it’s money up front and I get it.”
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McIlroy is currently defending his RBC Canadian Open title at St George’s in Toronto, where he is evens through six holes at time of writing. The four-time major champion also reiterated that he wants to remain on the PGA Tour before voicing his frustration at the divisive impact the series will have on the sport as a whole.
“I think it's a shame that it's going to fracture the game,” McIlroy concluded. “The professional game is the shop window into golf. If the general public are confused about who is playing where and what tournament's on this week and who is, you know, 'Oh, he plays there, OK, and he doesn't get into these events.'
“It just becomes so confusing. I think everything needs to try to become more cohesive and I think it was on a pretty good trajectory until this happened.”
The inaugural LIV Golf Series event is held at The Centurion Club in St Albans just outside London this weekend from June 9-12.
