One LIV Golf executive isn’t mincing words about PGA Tour loyalist Rory McIlroy.
As the dust continues to settle over the shocking merger between the once-rival golf tours, attention has turned to what the future of LIV Golf now holds and if its format will live on in some way with the PGA.
According to golf journalist Alan Shipnuck, the team format is still being sold by the Public Investment Fund (PIF), the arm of the Saudi government that bankrolled LIV.
The merger now opens the door for PGA Tour regulars to get in on the team format LIV has created, albeit one golfer may not be welcomed.
“Now we can finally get Hideki [Matsuyama] and Jon Rahm. I would say every big name on the PGA Tour will get an offer. Except Rory. Nobody wants that little bitch on their team,” the executive said to Shipnuck.
McIlroy has been one of the PGA’s staunchest defenders since the war between the Tour and the brash upstart league broke out.
The 34-year-old golfer spoke publicly about the merger for the first time Wednesday and said he felt like “a sacrificial lamb.”
Rory McIlroy plays a shot at the RBC Canadian OpenGetty Images“I still hate LIV,” McIlroy said after the merger was announced. “Like, I hate LIV. I hope it goes away, and I fully expect that it does.”
The Northern Irishman acknowledged that there could still be a team element, but insisted that it would look nothing like what LIV has looked like.
McIlroy may be in for a bit of a disappointment with his LIV prediction.
Rory McIlroyGetty Images
Rory McIlroy addressed the PGA Tour-LIV Golf merger on June 7, 2023.NY PostThe team format was already expected to be a massive money maker, with teams being valued at $500 million.
Under the LIV setup, the PIF owns 75% of the teams, and the captains own 25%.
The PIF is banking on selling the 12 LIV Golf teams in order to get its investment back, according to Shipnuck.
Monica Fee, LIV’s global head of partnerships, said that her phone had been “ringing off the hook” since the merger with companies looking to partner.
Yasir Al-Rumayyan, chairman of the PIF and the newly-announced golf entityGetty Images Marriott, Anheuser-Busch, Fox, and ESPN have all touched base with Fee.
What the future for golf looks like remains murky, but the idea has been floated that the LIV format could take place on weeks when the PGA Tour goes dark, with there being a “handful” of co-sanctioned events.
