Rory McIlroy reignited his bitter feud with LIV Golf on Thursday and seemed to delight in the Saudi-backed circuit losing Brooks Koepka to the PGA Tour.
The five-time major winner’s swift reinstatement this week, less than a month after leaving his contract with the Saudi breakaway league a year early, has been widely welcomed by many of the top professionals.
His departure persuaded the PGA Tour to re-write their rules to accommodate him within a specific penalty framework and even offer a window for the likes of fellow big names Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm and Cam Smith to return.
McIlroy, whose first competitive round of the year saw him shoot a five-under 66 to lead the Dubai Invitational, said that showed the current state of play.
‘It’s not as if they made any huge signings this year, is it?’ the Northern Irishman told The Daily Telegraph.
‘They haven’t signed anyone who moves the needle and I don’t think they will.
Rory McIlroy reignited his bitter feud with LIV Golf after Brooks Koepka’s return to the PGA Tour
McIlroy said LIV would not be better even if they gave Bryson DeChambeau more money
‘I mean, they could re-sign Bryson for hundreds of millions of dollars, but even if they do, it doesn’t change their product does it?
‘They’ll just be paying for the exact same thing. And they’ve lost Brooks.’
McIlroy’s comments come in contrast to former US Open champion Wyndham Clark, who said he was frustrated Koepka could take Saudi money and then return to the PGA Tour.
He thinks several other players might have left for the rival league if they had known they could come back.
Clark said Wednesday on the ‘Gravy and the Sleeze’ show on SiriusXM PGA Tour radio that he received an offer from LIV in 2024, a year after winning the U.S. Open.
‘And if you would have told me that I could have gone for a year-and-a-half, make a boatload of money and then be able to come back, play on the tour, I think almost everyone would have done that,’ he said to co-hosts Colt Knost and Drew Stolz.
‘So it’s a little frustrating that happened,’ he said. ‘Are people going to now see what the tour has done and then go do that anyways? You know, they reach out to LIV and say, “Hey, I want to come play LIV,” knowing that hey, you go take a bag for a year or two and you’re able to come back.
‘Yeah, it’s an interesting decision because I think there could be guys that have that mindset and kind of challenge the system and then come back say, “Well, you let Brooks do this, why can´t I do it?”‘
PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp described the case of Koepka, a five-time major champion and former No. 1 player in the world, as a ‘unique situation.’
The five-time major winner is back on the PGA Tour, less than a month after leaving LIV
The ‘Returning Member Program’ was created for players who won majors or The Players Championship since 2022 and had to be at least two years removed from the tour.
Koepka has to make a $5million charity donation and cannot receive tour equity grants for five years.
Tiger Woods, the central figure among player directors on the PGA Tour’s policy board, said Tuesday night after a TGL match: ‘We’re not going to satisfy everyone. We know that.’
‘But the whole idea is to make our tour better than what it was,’ Woods said. ‘With Brooks´ addition to tour, it does. It makes it a better place to play.
‘Now with players who have earned equity – and there are four more years of potential earning of equity for these players – the fact that they own the tour, if Brooks plays, it puts more money in their pocket. It´s a win for everyone.’
