Four-time major champion Rory McIlroy believes LIV Golf boss Greg Norman has done PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan a “disservice.”
Norman has been the chief executive of the LIV Golf League since its inauguration in 2022 and McIlroy has often been the first to both vocally oppose the breakaway tour and jump to the defence of the PGA Tour.
The Northern Irishman believes that LIV Golf has been “disruptive” and that there is a “disconnect” between the new circuit and the PIF – the Saudi sovereign wealth fund which has injected billions of dollars into LIV’s events and securing the signatures of some of the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour’s biggest names.
“I have spent time with Yasir and his – the people that have represented him in LIV I think have done him a disservice, so Norman and those guys,” McIlroy said after the final round of The Players Championship.
“I see the two entities, and I think there’s a big, I actually think there’s a really big disconnect between PIF and LIV.
“I think you got PIF over here and LIV are over here doing their own thing. So, the closer that we (PGA Tour) can get to Yasir, PIF and hopefully finalise that investment, I think that will be a really good thing.”
“I think their disruptiveness and his – their disruptiveness, and then his, I don’t know what the right word is, I guess his desire to be involved in the world of golf in a productive way,” he added.
Rory McIlroy: LIV Golf and PIF are disconnected
Monday, March 18 will see a meeting between the PGA Tour and the PIF with the hope of moving things towards a formal compromise after a groundbreaking framework agreement between the two entities was announced on June 6, 2023.
After Patrick Cantlay confirmed that figures from the PGA Tour would meet PIF representatives just one day after the tour’s flagship event came to an end in Ponte Vedra, reports on Sunday also suggested Tiger Woods could be in attendance.
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McIlroy himself will not be there after stepping down as a PGA Tour Policy Board player director at the end of last year. However, he believes that 15-time major champion Woods, who is one of six player directors on the board alongside Cantlay, should be there and that this meeting has been a long time coming.
“I think it should have happened months ago, so I am glad that it’s happening. Hopefully, that progresses conversations and gets us closer to a solution,” the 34-year-old added.
“I mean, he’s (Woods) a player director. He’s on the board, so absolutely he needs to be involved.”
Looking ahead to the future, McIlroy believes that investment is the key to a collaboration between both sides of professional golf. However, he also knows that this is not something that will happen in the blink of an eye.
“I think there’s a way to incorporate – I think they’re big on team golf and they want to see team golf survive in some way in the calendar,” he explained.
“I don’t think it has to necessarily look like LIV. I think in my mind you should leave the individual golf and then you play your team golf on the periphery of that.
“But, again, it’s going to require patience. People have contracts at LIV up until 2028, or 2029. I don’t know if they’re going to see that all the way out, but I definitely see LIV playing in its current form for the next couple years anyway while everything gets figured out.
“I don’t think this is an overnight solution, but if we can get the investment in, then at least we can start working towards a compromise where we’re not going to make everyone happy, but at least make everyone understand why we’re doing what we’re doing.”
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