Just 24 hours before the start of a new edition of the Wells Fargo Championship, a designated tournament of the PGA Tour in which he participates, Rory McIlroy has surprisingly revealed that, at least for now, he will not return to the PGA Tour Board of Directors, a return that has been talked about in recent weeks and to which the Northern Irish golfer himself had referred in some of his recent appearances before the media.
McIlroy‘s idea was to rejoin this council from which he left last summer to try to contribute, from his experience, to accelerate negotiations to reach an agreement with the Saudi Public Investment Fund that controls and finances LIV Golf with the aim of achieving, once and for all, peace in world golf. In fact, Webb Simpson offered to resign from his position so that Rory could occupy it. But apparently, this move will not finally take place.
“Things got quite complicated,” confirmed McIlroy this Wednesday. “The way everything happened, some wounds and scars from things that had happened before were opened. So I think there was a group of people on the board who were not comfortable with me back,” added the Northern Irishman. Therefore, unless tensions calm down, it does not seem that Rory will be part of these negotiations with the Saudis from the PGA Tour Board of Directors.
“There have been many conversations. I raised my hand to help and… I wouldn’t say I was rejected, but it was a complicated process to get back into that position. So nothing, it’s okay, no hard feelings of any kind, we’ll move on,” explained McIlroy. “I’m impatient because I think we have a window of opportunity, I think both parties, from a business point of view, don’t need to do it, but it makes sense,” he insisted.
“I compare it to when Northern Ireland went through the peace process in the 90s and the Good Friday Agreement. Neither side was happy. The Catholics were not happy. The Protestants, neither. But it brought peace and then you learn to live with what you have agreed. That was in 1998 and 20, 25 or 30 years later, my generation knows nothing but peace. I suppose that’s my way of thinking and trying to get both sides to see that there could be a compromise and, even if they are not comfortable, allow golf to start thriving again and we can all be together again,” he clarified.
In search of a more global calendar
On these issues that, according to Rory, maybe not everyone would like, he added: “It could be that if we go to a more global calendar… If we all come back together, I think there are only seven players in LIV who still have status or eligibility here. Would it be acceptable for the rest of the members to return after having potential contracts of hundreds of millions of dollars over the people who stayed? That’s a consideration.”
“But I don’t think it’s a big consideration because… what’s good for golf and what’s good for the Tom Kims of the world in 10 or 15 years is that these young people have the same opportunities, if not more, than we had at their time. That is, it’s not just about the here and now. It is a bit, of course, but it’s also about how this will look in 10, 15 or 20 years,” concluded the Northern Irishman.
