Rory amid LIV crisis: 'Glad I was wrong' on deal

NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. — Reigning Masters champion Rory McIlroy once urged the PGA Tour to come to an agreement with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund to reunify men’s professional golf.

On Tuesday, McIlroy admitted it would have been the wrong choice for the PGA Tour.

“I’m glad I was wrong,” McIlroy said during a news conference ahead of this week’s PGA Championship at Aronimink Golf Club. “I can admit when I’m wrong, and that was one that I did get wrong.”

On April 30, the PIF announced that it will no longer fund the LIV Golf League beyond this season. The PIF has purportedly spent more than $5 billion funding the breakaway circuit since its inception in June 2022.

The sovereign wealth fund said in a statement April 30 that the sizable investment in LIV Golf “is no longer consistent with the current phase of PIF’s investment strategy.”

The PIF is backing away from other international sports ventures and focusing on domestic programs, in part because of the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East.

“I think it was always a possibility to happen,” McIlroy said. “Look, I think everyone knows with everything that’s happening in the Middle East, that had a lot to do [with the PIF’s decision]. But whenever you have funding tied so much to the geopolitical landscape in the world, that’s a tricky road to navigate.

“The PIF’s priorities shifted, and that leaves LIV in a pretty precarious spot.”

Before the 2025 Genesis Invitational at Torrey Pines in La Jolla, California, McIlroy said it was time for golfers and executives from both sides “to get over it.”

Outgoing PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and player director Adam Scott met with U.S. President Donald Trump on Feb. 4, 2025, in an effort to speed up the federal government’s approval of the tour’s proposed deal with the PIF, which had planned to inject $1.5 billion into the tour’s for-profit entity, PGA Tour Enterprises.

“We all have to say, ‘OK, this is the starting point and we move forward,'” McIlroy said. “We don’t look behind us, we don’t look to the past. Whatever’s happened has happened and it’s been unfortunate, but reunification, how we all come back together and move forward, that’s the best thing for everyone. If people are butthurt or have their feelings hurt because guys went or whatever, like, who cares?”

LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil said last week that the league is finalizing its business plan and future model to take LIV Golf to market to potential investors. He said the league would continue to focus on its teams because he believes that’s where LIV Golf’s value exists.

McIlroy said he began hearing speculation about the PIF pulling out of LIV Golf as early as March. One of his close friends, Ricky McCormick, is LIV golfer Tom McKibbin‘s caddie.

“I would talk to him all the time about what was going on,” McIlroy said. “I was saying to Ricky, even before Mexico, ‘Have you guys heard any of this stuff?’ He was like, ‘No, everything seems OK over here.’ It just feels like the rug was pulled from under their feet and everyone was sort of blindsided by it.

“But again, that’s the risk that those guys chose to take. As I said, there’s a lot of uncertainty in the air right now.”

LIV Golf has six more tournaments scheduled this season. The next one will be played May 28-31 in South Korea. Its next event in the U.S. is scheduled for Aug. 6-9 at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey.

LIV Golf stars Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton disclosed at last week’s tournament in Virginia that they have multiyear contracts with the league. Bryson DeChambeau‘s contract expires after this season.

DeChambeau told ESPN last week that he hasn’t talked with PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan and that he wasn’t told about the fund’s decision before it was announced.

Al-Rumayyan stepped down as LIV Golf’s chairman, and other PIF officials resigned from the board of directors of the league’s UK-based entity.

“If they do somehow get a schedule together for next year, it seems like it’s going to look drastically different to what it’s looked like over the last four years,” McIlroy said.