Rory McIlroy will be the first to tell you that his opinions on LIV Golf and the bigger picture for the future of professional golf have evolved over the past few years.
The four-time major champion has gone from being the PGA Tour’s leading voice in the battle against LIV to now only speaking for himself as he tries to focus on his own game with the hope that the opposing sides will come together soon.
Ahead of the 2025 Genesis Invitational at Torrey Pines on Wednesday, McIlroy explained how and why his feelings on LIV have evolved while asking fellow PGA Tour players to “get over” their hard feelings toward those who left to go to LIV.
“Whether you stayed on the PGA Tour or you left, we have all benefited from this,” McIlroy said Wednesday after the pro-am at the Genesis Invitational at Torrey Pines. “I’ve been on the record saying this a lot: We’re playing for a $20 million prize fund this week. That would have never happened if LIV hadn’t come around. I think everyone’s just got to get over it, and we all have to say, OK, this is the starting point, and we move forward. We don’t look behind us. We don’t look to the past. Whatever’s happened has happened and it’s been unfortunate, but reunification, how we all come back together and move forward, that’s the best thing for everyone.
“If people are butt hurt or have their feelings hurt because guys went or whatever, like, who cares? Let’s move forward together, and let’s just try to get this thing going again and do what’s best for the game.”
McIlroy’s comments didn’t sit well with three-time PGA Tour winner Johnson Wagner, who now serves as an analyst for Golf Channel.
On Thursday, Wagner went after McIlroy for looking at things only through his experience.
“The fact that he’s saying that we’ve all benefited, he’s just seeing things from a finite perspective, from his perspective,” Wagner said. “You know who hasn’t benefited since all these things have gone on? The sponsors, who pay all the bills. TV is down, everything is down yet they are being asked to pay more money. So, good for you, I’m glad you’re making more money than you were in ’19, which was a ton of money. Also, he’s telling everyone to get over it. Rory has said a lot of things over the past couple of seasons that have rubbed a lot of players the wrong way. Now, he wants everyone to get over it, he’s pushing for a small world tour. He’s trying to get his way in every way. I’m a huge fan of Rory, but he’s angering me right now.”
. @johnson_wagner with some pointed commentary on @McIlroyRory's presser yesterday. "He just is seeing things from such a finite perspective, from his perspective." pic.twitter.com/fcqCNVrtBU
— Josh Carpenter (@JoshACarpenter) February 14, 2025
PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan spoke after McIlroy on Wednesday and hinted that there could be movement on the PGA Tour’s deal with the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund, which finances LIV, soon.
Both McIlroy and Monahan spoke about unifying golf by bringing all of the top men’s players back under one tour. That vision is in contrast with LIV’s plans to continue to grow and be part of the golf ecosystem, not just something that is folded into the PGA Tour and then disregarded.
McIlroy is part of the three-person PGA Tour transaction subcommittee with Tiger Woods and Adam Scott. Monahan and Scott met with President Donald Trump last week to seek his help in moving along their deal with the PIF. Woods played golf with Trump on Sunday, while McIlroy did so before the president’s inauguration.
Everyone sees things through their own lens. McIlroy has changed his opinion on a multitude of things, but that’s a sign of growth and evolution in any person. It doesn’t mean you have to agree with how the stance has changed or that the contradictions can’t be addressed.
McIlroy did that Wednesday when explaining how his own thinking has changed.
“I didn’t feel that way initially because of the fracture … it wasn’t good for the game, it wasn’t good for the overall game,” McIlroy said. “It wasn’t good for either tour, I didn’t think. I think we’re both sort of like this has been great for the major championships. We all get together at the major championships, and that’s been a really good thing, but for both tours, it’s unsustainable.
“I was opposed to a lot of it. I was opposed to 54 holes. I was opposed to the team concept in some way, but when you sort of remove yourself from it a little bit and you look at the overall picture, like we’ve all done better because of this.”
But what McIlroy is trying to do is look at the bigger picture and what men’s professional golf needs, and that’s all its best players — the few non-Tiger needle-movers the game has — playing together more than four times a year.
Wagner, like McIlroy, is entitled to his opinion. They both want the PGA Tour to succeed and grow. They just differ on the best way to get there.
