Rory McIlroy Says He Feels ‘Like a Sacrificial Lamb’ in the PGA Tour-LIV Golf Merger
Rory McIlroy, a longtime critic of LIV Golf, is speaking out about the merger between the PGA Tour and the Saudi-backed tour.
On Wednesday the 34-year-old golfer met with members of the media, one day after the unexpected news was announced.
“It’s hard for me to not sit up here and feel somewhat like a sacrificial lamb and feeling like I’ve put myself out there and this is what happens,” the four-time major winner, who learned about the merger via social media, said.
Yet despite widespread reports that McIlroy reportedly turned down $500 million to join LIV, he set the record straight, telling reporters, “I was never offered any money [from LIV].”
Last year, Tiger Woods rejected an offer “in the neighborhood” of $700 to $800 million to join LIV Golf, the group’s CEO Greg Norman claimed.
In his comments, McIlroy did not mince words about his dislike for the breakaway tour — even if he conceded that it would eventually “be good for the game of professional golf.”
“There’s a lot of things still to be sort of thrashed out,” he said in Toronto, one day before competing in this week’s RBC Canadian Open. “But at least it means that the litigation goes away, which has been a massive burden for everyone that’s involved with the tour and that’s playing the tour, and we can start to work toward some sort of way of unifying the game at the elite level.”
