Rory McIlroy’s LIV approach? Looking back, he could have done 1 thing differently
Rory McIlroy at the 2024 RBC Canadian Open.
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A year after calling LIV Golf “dead in the water,” Rory McIlroy has something interesting to say about his regrets.
McIlroy’s first mistake came at the 2022 Genesis Invitational, when Phil Mickelson’s explosive comments about a new Saudi league sent shockwaves through the golf world and caused many top pros – Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson and Jon Rahm among them – to further reduce their allegiance to the club. The PGA Tour. Due to the non-participation of major players, the chances of this newly formed league seemed very small.
At Genesis, McIlroy ripped Mickelson’s words as “nonsensical, selfish, arrogant, ignorant,” among other things. He also said that he does not see a way forward for LIV.
“I mean, there is none [that will go],” he said. “It’s dead in the water in my opinion. I don’t see any reason why anyone would leave.”
A year later, at Genesis 2023, I asked McIlroy if he regretted firing so much, knowing how much talent LIV produced on Tour the following season. But he shook his head.
“No, it’s not,” she said. “I can admit when I’m wrong, and jeez, I’ve been very wrong about a lot of things. But I didn’t see it. I just received some comments and I said, well, it doesn’t seem like people are interested. “
That led to a sequel. Given McIlroy’s willingness to speak his mind throughout his career, do you regret what he said? Like, always?
“Not really,” he said. “Because I’m very good at admitting when I’m wrong, and being like, look, hand up. I was wrong, or maybe I didn’t know if I was wrong or anything.”
He recalled the uproar that had followed his Ryder Cup comments a decade-plus earlier, which he had dismissed as a “show” as a 20-year-old Irish teenager.
“I’ve never played in the Ryder Cup, so it was a very naive idea,” he said. “But that’s all – an opinion. None of us will live without making mistakes, and I probably know that more than most people, but I’m right that I’m sorry, I was wrong. And you really have to learn and grow from it? I don’t know, maybe that’s a good thing. So, no regrets. “
No regrets. That’s the bit that stuck with me.
Things changed after that. They changed McIlroy and they changed the Tour and they changed the relationship between the two. In particular they changed the week of the 2023 RBC Canadian Open, where the PIF-PGA Tour-DP World Tour framework agreement – in retrospect, an agreement that has raised more questions than answers and whose outcome remains uncertain – adds a new ugly chapter to the fight for professional golf supremacy. And they left McIlroy feeling hung out to dry. “Sacrificial lamb” was another phrase he used.
Wednesday brought McIlroy’s Wednesday press conference ahead of this year’s RBC Canadian Open. If we think back to the last two Canadian Opens – the 2022 edition coincided with the first event of LIV, while the 2023 edition brought a framework agreement – another reporter asked McIlroy to think about his participation in the battle of the PGA Tour with LIV.
“I think, looking back, I wish I hadn’t been involved, or ‘I wasn’t involved,’ but I wasn’t involved. seriously I’ve been involved in it, and I’ve expressed that,” said McIlroy. “I said that of course, I don’t hold a grudge, I don’t hold a grudge against the boys who chose to play in LIV. Everyone has their own decisions to make and everyone has the right to make those decisions.
“My whole thing is that I’m disappointed in what’s been done to it – not in the game of golf, the game of golf will be fine – but professional men’s golf and the kind of division that we have at the moment. I hope we’re on the road to fixing that and doing that to get back together, but, yeah, I mean, hindsight is always 20/20, but looking back I wish I hadn’t gotten in as deep as I did. “
Does that mean regret? It seems to fit the description, although McIlroy may see it differently: He said what he believed at the time, the situation has changed and he has changed with it. Ironically, McIlroy is now trying to bridge the gap between the two sides, as he is the biggest voice in the game seeking a decision between tours. In recent weeks McIlroy has sought an official role again; resigned from his position on the Policy Board last fall but promised to reinstate it this spring in Webb Simpson’s place. That has not been made public but he will be a non-voting member of the Tour’s transactions sub-committee, which oversees ongoing negotiations with the PIF. Hindsight or not, it’s clear he still wants to be involved.
All of that comes in the background as McIlroy returns to the golf course where he has fond memories: The RBC Canadian Open is back at Hamilton Golf and Country Club for the first time since 2019, when McIlroy shot a 61 on Sunday to clear the field. .
“Yeah, it feels good to be back,” McIlroy said. “It was my first Canadian Open and I was blown away by the excitement of the fans, and it was a great atmosphere to play in.
He cites that Sunday as one of the most electrifying of his career and the event admits to some disappointment: If he had been driving the No. 18 he was going to shoot a finishing 59 but instead made a bogey 61.
“Not that I’m still thinking about it,” he said with a smile.
The Canadian Open was not held in 2020 or 2021 due to the Covid pandemic but resumed in 2022 at St George’s; McIlroy also won that year. Last year he was on his way to the airport after finishing T9 when he heard Nick Taylor winning on the radio.
“Full disclosure, I was hoping for Tommy [Fleetwood] he was going to get his first PGA Tour win, but Nick had other plans,” said McIlroy, referring to Taylor’s rival. “But yeah, it’s really amazing. The fact that a Canadian hadn’t won the National Open in 60 years, and the way Nick did it, that put it in the end, the scene, like everything else. “
It’s been a complicated couple of weeks for McIlroy. He played a spectacular final drive en route to victory on Sunday at the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow on May 13. On May 14, he filed for divorce. He appeared at the PGA Championship the next day, though he refused to talk about his health and lay low for most of the week. After finishing T12 at Valhalla he flew to Italy for an old friend’s wedding. He sounded refreshed on the occasion.
“It’s nice to see so many people who have left home since I haven’t seen them in a long time,” she said. “Yes, it was a really good trip, I needed it.
“Then I had fun, I had a good weekend at home. I spent time with my family and Poppy and, yes, it was great. So I needed that reset.”
Things will always be busy; McIlroy plans to play each of the next four weeks. After the Canadian Open he will head to the Memorial and then the US Open followed by the Traveler Championship.
“It’s been a busy job and I’m on my way back to it,” he said. “I probably hit 150 balls last week. So, not that I feel rusty, I feel like I’ve played enough golf to keep myself [ready]but, yes, last week was a good week to just reorganize and start over.”
He will have many reasons to keep looking forward.
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