Rory McIlroy’s decision not to travel for face-to-face talks between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf was vindicated by his performance at the end of the first day of the Memorial Tournament.
Given his early tee-time the Northern Irishman considered traveling to New York following the second round on Friday, as the PGA Tour’s transaction committee and LIV Golf backers - the Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) - had their first in-person meeting.
McIlroy is part of the recently formed transaction committee alongside Tiger Woods and Adam Scott. PGA commissioner Jay Monahan, player liaison Joe Ogilvie, Fenway Sports Chair John Henry and PGA Enterprises Chair Joe Gorder make up the non-playing part of the group.
Despite earlier deliberation of whether he would attend in person, McIlroy opted not to make the trip from Ohio. He instead kept his focus on the tournament and put himself back on the tail of the leaders after he made four late birdies on the opening day to move T18 on -2. Current leader Adam Hadwin is -6 under par before the start of play on day two.
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McIlroy spoke to a group of reporters following an opening-round 70, he said: “I certainly don’t see in the next couple of years LIV slowing down. They’re buying office space in New York. They have over 200 employees. I don’t see a world where—and I haven’t heard any of those guys say that they don’t want to play over there either, right? You’ve got guys who are on contracts until 2028, 2029.
“Looking a few years down the line, LIV is going to continue to sort of keep going down its path. But hopefully with maybe more of a collaboration or an understanding between the tours. Maybe there is some cross-pollination there where players can start to play on both. I guess that will all be talked about in the coming weeks.”
The transaction committee regularly meet every Monday, Wednesday and Friday amongst themselves, and representatives from the PIF have been present in recent weeks. “There’s going to be people in that room on the PGA Tour side who are going to take the lead,” McIlroy continued.
McIlroy closed the opening day with four late birdies (Getty Images)“And it’s not going to be Adam, Tiger or I. That’s going to be Jay, Joe Gorder, Joe Ogilvie, John Henry. It’s going to be the business guys. We’re there to maybe give a perspective from a player’s point of view.
“This is a negotiation about an investment in the PGA Tour Enterprises, this is big boy stuff. And I’ll certainly be doing more listening than I will be doing talking.”
McIlroy added it is unknown at this point what PIF’s role might be going forward. “I think depending on what the DOJ (the U.S. Department of Justice) allows, it might have to be a very passive investment,” he said. “I don’t know what’s in their head. I don’t know if that is something that they are willing to do. We’ll find out.”
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