Rory McIlroy doesn’t view the made-for-TV match between stars from the PGA Tour and LIV Golf as a message, more like a glimpse of the possibilities of what can happen, and what has been missing in golf since the great divide.
McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler are playing against Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau in December in Las Vegas. The only times they have competed in the same field this year were in the four majors.
McIlroy, once a fierce opponent of Saudi-funded LIV Golf, has been bullish about finding a solution to bring the top players together more often. He has was on the PGA Tour board for a year, resigned and now is part of a negotiating committee.
“It’s more we wanted to do something that, I guess, all golf fans could get excited about,” McIlroy said Wednesday ahead of the Irish Open. “It’s a way to show golf fans in the world that this is what could happen or these are the possibilities going forward. I’ve been saying this for a long time. I think golf and golf fans (should) get to see us together more than four times a year.
“I think we all thought it was a good idea and something that hopefully is a sign of things to come in the future.”
A flight-tracking website reported that private planes of the PGA Tour and Aramco, formally known as the Saudi Arabian Oil Co., were in the New York area, and ESPN reported more meetings between the PGA Tour and the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia. Tiger Woods also was in New York, first for a charity event.
“I don’t know much about the talks that are going on. I know that there is, but that’s not something that I’m a part of,” McIlroy said. “I think we are all in the game of golf trying to look for a solution to all this and try to move forward.”
The PGA Tour starts the fall portion of its schedule, while LIV Golf wraps up its regular season at a public course in the Chicago suburbs. Jon Rahm, who signed with LIV in December, has a slight lead in the bid for the individual title and an $18 million bonus.
Still unclear is Rahm’s status with the Ryder Cup. He is required to play four European tour events to maintain his membership — the Olympics count as one — and Rahm says he has entered the Spanish Open next week.
But he is required to pay fines for playing LIV events against European tour events.
“Still talking to the DP World Tour. I intend to play in Spain,” Rahm said Wednesday ahead of LIV Golf Chicago. “We entered a long time ago. Whether they let me play or not is a different thing. I’m not a big fan of the fines. I think I’ve been outspoken about that. I don’t intend to pay the fines, and we keep trying to have a discussion with them about how we can make this happen.”
Rahm said the European tour would be doing Spanish golf a disservice by not letting him play.
The European tour said in a statement: “Jon has outstanding sanctions for breaches of the DP World Tour’s conflicting tournament regulation. Until those outstanding sanctions are resolved, he is ineligible to play in a DP World Tour event.”
As for the PGA Tour-LIV match in Las Vegas, Rahm said he would be happy to be part of a similar event in the future.
“I think we could do some special things having both tours,” he said.