Rory McIlroy has been the PGA Tour’s strongest supporter for some time now, showing leadership off the course and in class. But, at the PGA Championship, he chose silence in the face of the inevitable questions from LIV Golf.
Rory McIlroy took his press conference duties on the second day of PGA Championship week – something he avoided at the Wells Fargo Championship.
And this seemed to be a different Rory McIlroy, a calmer McIlroy who wanted to avoid controversy and hot-button topics and instead committed to his game, Oak Hill, and won what would be his fifth major.
Journalists can often count on the Northern Irishman to deliver a solid speech on the sporting climate and the existence of LIVGolf – but not this time.
“If you could look into your crystal ball in three years, where do you think professional football will be? was one of the questions asked of him.
“I don’t have a crystal ball,” he said.
“Is that going to be a conscious thing for you to try to circumvent (the LIV’s) narrative?
“Yes,” he said.
McIlroy unfortunately missed the cut at the Masters, then took a week off from the RBC Heritage, even though he was supposed to play due to his new elevated status in 2023.
He has since attributed his absence to Harbor Town for “needing a break” after a “mentally taxing” 12 months before last month’s showpiece at Augusta National.
It’s no secret that McIlroy has taken on a lot of responsibility in leading the PGA Tour’s charge against LIV Golf by helping to organize a revised calendar in 2023 and 2024.
The tour has received heat from various directions for introducing a seamless series of events next year. This led some naysayers to immediately draw a resemblance to LIV Golf League events.
And among all this, McIlroy was trying to play golf. He performed incredibly well in 2022, winning the CJ Cup as well as the FedEx Cup, and finishing in the top 10 in every major tournament.
Earlier this year, he won a fight against Patrick Reed at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic after the duo endured a frosty exchange on the driving range before the start of the event.
His conflict with LIV Golf cost him his friendship in some cases – most publicly with Sergio Garcia.
He won’t have to worry about sharing a Ryder Cup locker room with the Spaniard again, as the string of resignations from the DP World Tour is just another change McIlroy has had to digest mentally.
So you can understand why he would avoid further discussions about LIV Golf – it’s all that has been on his mind since the Saudi-backed tour began in June 2022.
“It’s not really the Augusta performance that’s hard to overcome, it’s the mental aspect and the deflation and trying to get your mind in the right place to start moving forward again,” he told Oak Hill.
“I think I’m close. I’ve made good progress even since Quail Hollow a few weeks ago. I see better things, better tee lines and definitely better golf shots.
“(I’m) a little more confident in where I’m going to throw the ball and a more consistent shot pattern. We will go out, see and play.
“I expect to go there, and if I can execute the way I feel like I can, then I still believe I’m one of the best players in the world and I can produce good golf to have a chance to win this week.”
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