LIV Golf players knew the risks of rebel tour, Rory McIlroy says
Rory McIlroy says LIV Golf players knew the risks they were taking when they jumped ship to the rebel league, as uncertainty clouds the tour’s future.
LIV’s backer, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, this month confirmed that it will withhold further funding following the end of the season.
The move has come as part of a wider pivot away from sport by the sovereign wealth fund and could leave LIV stars such as Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm in limbo.
“It was always a possibility that could happen,” McIlroy, a long-time LIV critic, said ahead of this week’s US PGA Championship.
“Their [PIF] priorities shifted and that leaves LIV in a pretty precarious spot, but that was always a possibility.
“A lot of us almost knew before the players did that this was going to happen. It feels like the rug was pulled from under their feet and everyone was blindsided by it.
“That was the risk that those guys chose to take and there’s a lot of uncertainty in the air right now.”
What next for LIV golf?
Major winners DeChambeau, Rahm, Sergio Garcia and Cameron Smith are the biggest draws on the LIV Golf tour, which has been praised for taking golf to huge crowds in Australia and South Africa.
But the league has cost PIF more than $5bn in five seasons and there appears little prospect of it turning a profit soon.
Rahm’s route back could be via the DP World Tour – rather than the PGA Tour – and paid millions in fines earlier this month to ensure that he can be picked for next year’s Ryder Cup.
“If they do somehow get a schedule together for next year it looks like it’s going to be drastically different,” added McIlroy.
The US PGA Championship is taking place at Aronimink Golf Club in Pennsylvania.