McIlroy is ‘ready to do his bit’ and makes an unexpected return to the PGA Tour board.
Rory McIlroy will return to the PGA Tour policy board this week, subject to a vote to renew his position, just five months after leaving it. Negotiations between the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) over the stunning Framework Agreement signed in June are said to be stalled, with talks underway to unify the game. McIlroy’s involvement is likely to assist placate sponsors and Yasir Al-Rumayyan, head of the PIF, and speed a deal between the two groups, who are still far apart in their ambitions for the sport.
McIlroy told Sky Sports News on Monday evening, “I’d rather the men’s golf professional landscape survived this, so I’m happy to do my bit.” McIlroy would succeed Webb Simpson, who has reportedly submitted his resignation and requested that the former world number one take his position. The other current PGA Tour player directors on the policy board are Patrick Cantlay, Peter Malnati, Adam Scott, Jordan Spieth, and Tiger Woods.
Why would McIlroy rejoin the PGA Tour board? McIlroy joined the Player Advisory Council in 2019 and then served on the PGA Tour’s policy board from 2021 until last November, when he quit due to concerns about the time and energy required for the post.
“I just think I’ve got a lot going on in my life between my golf game, my family, my growing investment portfolio, and my involvement with TGL, and I just felt like something had to give,” McIlroy said at the DP World Tour Championship. “I don’t mind being busy, but I like being busy doing my own thing. Something has to give, and there are guys on that board who devote far more time and energy to it than I do. It’s in capable hands, and I felt it was the appropriate time to depart.”
McIlroy admitted at the start of the year that he was “too judgemental” of players who switched to LIV Golf, despite previously supporting the PGA Tour and DP World Tour since the Saudi-backed circuit’s establishment in 2022. The Northern Irishman stated ahead of February’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am that there should be a punishment-free path for players to return to the PGA Tour if they so desire, with McIlroy admitting in an interview last month that the sport’s split condition is “unsustainable”.
McIlroy’s softening attitude on LIV Golf sparked speculation that he would be the next to move, a notion his manager Sean O’Flaherty dismissed as “fake news,” with the 34-year-old promptly dismissing the rumors and stating his future was with the PGA Tour. “I honestly don’t know how these things get started,” McIlroy told Golf Channel during an interview at the RBC Heritage. “I think I’ve made it clear over the last two years that I don’t believe it’s for me. It does not imply that I judge those who went and played over there.
“I think one of the things I’ve realized over the last two years is that people may make their own decisions about what they believe is best for themselves, and who are we to criticize them for that? But, personally, my future is on the PGA Tour, as it has always been.” On the course, McIlroy began the year as a runner-up at the Dubai Invitational, won the Hero Dubai Desert Classic the following week, and then had a difficult start to his PGA Tour season.
McIlroy’s third-place finish at the Valero Texas Open is the first time he has finished higher than 19th in his past eight starts, with a tie-22nd at The Masters earlier this month extending his major drought and career Grand Slam bid.