ORLANDO — What’s holding back the PGA Tour and PIF from making a deal to reunify men’s professional golf?
“It takes two to tango,” Rory McIlroy said Wednesday. “So if one party is willing and ready and the other isn’t, it sort of makes it tough.”
While McIlroy was not a part of either meeting last month in the White House, he remains an influential voice and figure in the sport, a member of a PGA Tour subcommittee related to the negotiations, and over the last year, someone increasingly willing to get a deal done if it meant top LIV golfers would return to the PGA Tour.
His admission, which came during his press conference before the start of the Arnold Palmer Invitational, offers some insight into what happened — or did not happen — when PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, Tiger Woods and PIF governor/LIV chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan met with President Donald Trump for hours in the Oval Office on Feb. 20. That meeting was labeled as a “constructive working session” at the time.
“I don’t think it’s ever felt that close, but I don’t, it doesn’t feel like it’s any closer,” McIlroy said.
It’s another twist and turn in the years-long saga between the two parties, coming amid such growing optimism that Monahan was asked by reporters Tuesday whether or not a deal could be announced next week during The Players Championship, the PGA Tour’s premiere event. It’s been clear for some time that PIF is willing to invest in the PGA Tour, but the current schism is likely more directly related to the future of LIV.
It’s not realistic to expect the top LIV golfers like Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau to play 14 LIV events, four majors and enough PGA Tour events to be a factor again, but first-year LIV CEO Scott O’Neil has continued to make the case for the breakaway tour’s future. It stands in direct contrast to Monahan’s repeated push for reunification.
“I continue to see LIV Golf growing,” DeChambeau told reporters at LIV Hong Kong Wednesday. “It’s going to grow at an exponentiating pace for years to come, and we aren’t going anywhere.”
While McIlroy said the PIF’s investment would be welcome, he seemed bullish on the PGA Tour’s immediate future, including TGL’s role as an additive product exposing top tour stars to a new audience.
“I think the narrative around golf would welcome a deal in terms of just having all the best players together again. But I don’t think the PGA Tour needs a deal. I think the momentum is pretty strong,” McIlroy said.
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(Top photo of Rory McIlroy: Richard Heathcote / Getty Images)
