Rory McIlroy Reveals Players Delaying PGA TOUR Merger with LIV Golf

Rory McIlroy revealed the players holding up a potential merger between the PGA TOUR and LIV Golf.

The PGA TOUR has been working toward an agreement with the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), which has funded LIV Golf. The TOUR and PIF came to a framework agreement in Summer 2023.

The deal was supposed to be done by the New Year. We are now ten months past due, and McIlroy is revealing the players who are keeping the deal from getting done.

BBC

McIlroy said the players are ones that “nobody likes,” and while he did not detail specific names or their reservations for holding up the deal, he still believes there is a bright side here.

He said (via The Express):

“I mean, I’d say we’ll know by the end of the year whether that’s a possibility or not, but I think all tours are going to keep trucking along and doing their own thing for the foreseeable future. I think the best thing we can maybe hope for is a bit of crossover between them and then maybe while that is happening over that period of time, whether it be one year, two years, three years, just trying to figure out the rest.”

McIlroy was, at one time, the biggest vocal critic of LIV Golf and was not ecstatic about the prospect of the TOUR merging with it, or doing business with the PIF.

His tone has changed significantly, mostly after Jon Rahm defected to LIV last December, impacting the European Ryder Cup squad, for which McIlroy is the unofficial player-captain.

Rahm (left) and McIlroy after the Europeans won the Ryder Cup in Rome, Italy, in 2023. (Golf Magazine)

McIlroy has been insistent on getting a deal done with the PIF to end division in professional golf. However, the terms are still being agreed upon, and most of it is hung up on money, according to recent reports.

Cover Image via BBC