Rory McIlroy admitted he sensed LIV Golf was heading for trouble weeks before Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) confirmed it would stop funding the circuit. The Masters champion pointed out that the PIF’s decision highlights the danger of sports becoming reliant on factors influenced by global events.
LIV is now racing against time to survive as PIF, which has poured more than $5bn (£3.7bn) into the tour, plans to exit by the end of 2026. The news emerged shortly after McIlroy’s successful title defense at Augusta National last month, shocking those within LIV—but not the Northern Irishman.
“It was always a possibility,” McIlroy said. “I feel like a lot of us, including me, almost knew before the LIV players did that this was going to happen. I was hearing about this back in March or April. I have friends over there. One of my best friends, Ricky McCormick, caddies for Tom McKibbin. I would talk to him all the time about what was going on. I asked Ricky, ‘Have you guys heard any of this stuff?’ He said, ‘No, everything seems OK over here.’ It just feels like the rug was pulled from under their feet, and everyone was blindsided. That’s the risk those guys chose to take. There’s a lot of uncertainty in the air right now.”
McIlroy, who returns to action at the US PGA Championship on Thursday, previously wanted the PGA Tour to accept Saudi funding. Now he admits he was wrong, as LIV faces a bleak future partly tied to the Iran conflict. “Everyone knows, with everything happening in the Middle East, that had a lot to do with it,” McIlroy said. “But whenever you have funding tied so much to the geopolitical landscape, that’s a tricky road to navigate. Their priorities shifted, and that leaves LIV in a pretty precarious spot.”
Rory McIlroy will tee off alongside fellow major champions Jon Rahm and Jordan Spieth in the first two rounds of the US PGA Championship at Aronimink Golf Club in Philadelphia. McIlroy, aiming for back-to-back majors after his Masters win, starts his campaign on the back nine at 8:40 a.m. local time (1:40 p.m. BST) on Thursday. Spieth seeks the career grand slam, while Rahm looks to add this title to his US Open and Masters victories. England’s Alex Fitzpatrick, who earned his tour card with his brother Matt at the Zurich Classic, will be in the first group at 6:45 a.m. (11:45 a.m. BST). World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler defends his title alongside Matt Fitzpatrick and Justin Rose at 2:05 p.m. (7:05 p.m. BST). Rose, a consistent major performer, is one of two players in the field with a win at Aronimink. British hopes Tommy Fleetwood and Robert MacIntyre are paired together, while 2024 US PGA champion Xander Schauffele plays alongside Brooks Koepka and England’s Tyrrell Hatton.
McIlroy made just one start after the Masters, last week in Charlotte, skipping a planned appearance at Doral. That same week, he was name-dropped by Donald Trump during a dinner marking King Charles’s visit to the US. McIlroy returns for the year’s second major at Aronimink, having scouted the venue for five hours last week, though a blister on his right foot limited him to three holes on Tuesday. He revealed he removed the nail on his little toe earlier in the week. “I was tentatively planning to play Doral, then I got invited to that White House state dinner on a Tuesday night, which I thought was a wonderful opportunity,” McIlroy said. “To go down to Doral and then fly up to DC for that and then fly back down… if I wasn’t giving 100% attention to the tournament, there’s no reason to play it. I wanted to do the state dinner, and if I was going to do that, it was probably better to take that week to practice and prepare, come up here and see the golf course, and then go into Quail Hollow feeling more ready.”