Rory McIlroy is glad he’s able to admit he was wrong.
Last year, McIlroy said he believed a deal between the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, LIV Golf’s main financial backer, “should and will be done.” Fast forward to Tuesday morning and McIlroy was asked about those comments in wake of recent news that PIF was pulling its support of LIV at the end of this season.
“I think it was always a possibility to happen,” McIlroy said. “Look, I think everyone knows like with everything that’s happening in the Middle East, that had a lot to do, but whenever you have funding tied so much to the geopolitical landscape in the world, that’s a tricky road to navigate. Yeah, their priorities shifted, and that leaves LIV in a pretty precarious spot. But again, it was always a possibility.”
McIlroy revealed that he’d heard rumblings of PIF’s imminent decision back in March, saying, “I feel like a lot of us in this room, including me, we almost knew before the players did that this was going to happen.” He then told a story about how he asked friend Ricky McCormick, who caddies for LIV player Tom McKibbin, if he’d heard anything – even before LIV Mexico City in mid-April, around the time reports started to surface.
“He was like, ‘No, everything seems okay over here,’” McIlroy recalled. “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.”
As for LIV’s prospects moving forward as its CEO Scott O’Neil tries to secure partners and sponsors to keep the league going, McIlroy wasn’t willing to go all-in on another prediction this time.
“I’m not privy to the deals they have,” McIlroy said. “I guess from what I read they’ve got some sponsorship revenue for I don’t know how long that those commitments are. Look, 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.”
