Top golfer Rory McIlroy, who had become the unofficial face of the PGA Tour and the resistance to Saudi Arabia-backed LIV Golf, capitulated on Wednesday to the merger of the two sides, saying it “ultimately is going to be good for the game of golf”.
“I still hate LIV,” said McIlroy, ranked third on the overall PGA men’s tour standings, ahead of a tournament in Canada on Wednesday. “Whether you like it or not, the [Public Investment Fund] are going to keep spending money in golf. At least the PGA Tour now controls how that money is spent.”
McIlroy’s comments came a day after the PGA and Saudi Arabia’s PIF announced plans to jointly control professional golf’s commercial entities, in effect merging the two sides after a two-year feud within the sport.
The surprise union ends ongoing litigation between the PGA and LIV Golf, the rival tour that lured top competitors like Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson with contracts reported to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
McIlroy and the PGA leadership had long resisted the Saudi competition, with the Northern Irishman previously saying that the LIV tour had “ripped apart” the world of golf and that he stayed with the PGA to “do things for all the right reasons”.
On Wednesday, McIlroy pointed to the framework agreement between the PGA and the PIF, which will have tour executive Jay Monahan as chief executive of the yet-to-be-named joint commercial entity. Yasir al-Rumayyan, governor of the PIF, will be chair and the fund will retain right of first refusal for any future capital investments in the company.
“If you’re thinking about one of the biggest sovereign wealth funds in the world, would you rather have them as a partner or an enemy?” said McIlroy in a press conference ahead of the RBC Canadian Open. “At the end of the day, money talks and you’d rather have [the PIF] as a partner.”
News of the PGA and PIF merger sparked outrage among families of victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks, who said in a statement on Tuesday that “the PGA and Monahan appear to have become just more paid Saudi shills, taking billions of dollars to cleanse the Saudi reputation”.
Bryson DeChambeau, a professional golfer who joined LIV Golf last year, was asked by CNN on Tuesday how he reconciled allegations that Saudi operatives murdered The Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi as well as Saudi links to the 9/11 attacks.
“What happened is definitely terrible,” he said. “I think as time has gone on, 20 years have passed and we are in a place now where it is time to start working together to make things better . . . [Saudi Arabia] are trying to do good for the world and showcase themselves in a light that hasn’t been seen in a while. Nobody is perfect but we are all trying to improve in life.”
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