As the PGA Tour and LIV Golf continue to negotiate the sport’s future, Rory McIlroy says he has a “dream scenario” with a global approach, tapping into markets such as Australia, South Africa and Japan.
“Going forward, if everything is on the table, venues have to be a big part of the consideration,” he said in an interview Tuesday with Golf Digest in Dubai. “We need to make sure the courses are worthy of the players who are going to be competing. My dream scenario is a world tour, with the proviso that corporate America has to remain a big part of it all. Saudi Arabia, too. That’s just basic economics.
“But there is an untapped commercial opportunity out there,” he continued. “Investors always want to make a return on their money. Revenues at the PGA Tour right now are about $2.3 billion. So how do we get that number up to four or six? To me, it is by looking outward. They need to think internationally and spread their wings a bit. I’ve been banging that drum for a while.”
The PGA Tour is continuing extended negotiations to finalize an alliance with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which bankrolls the LIV Golf League.
McIlroy, one of the biggest and most successful stars in professional golf, has a new perspective after his previous criticism of LIV Golf, which has the financial resources to successfully recruit many of the PGA Tour’s established players, including Phil Mickelson at the start and, most recently, Jon Rahm.
A four-time major champion from Northern Ireland, McIlroy, 34, has been the face of the PGA Tour during this period but resigned from the PGA Tour policy board in November.
“Getting out of all things political has definitely cleared my head,” McIlroy told Golf Digest. “I don’t feel like I’m caught up in it all. For the last two years, every time I’d be walking from the locker room to the range, I’d be stopped by someone with a couple of questions. I get that I made myself the go-to guy. I was on the board and knew what was going on. So I felt like I could speak to it.
“Now, if someone asks me, I can honestly say I don’t know what is going on. I can’t give the best opinion anymore. Because they aren’t based on absolute facts.”
McIlroy does have an opinion on expanding international opportunities for the planet’s best golfers. Having played in many parts of the globe, he sees a way to solve the current conflict.
“Whether they are rotated on the new global circuit, or we go with the same ones every year, I’m OK with either,” McIlroy said. “The Australian Open, for example, should almost be the fifth major. The market down there is huge with potential. They love golf. They love sport. They have been starved of top-level golf. And the courses are so good.
“The South African Open is another I’d have in the mix. Then you have places like Singapore and Hong Kong and Japan. What a market Japan represents. That would be another opportunity. We could end up with something that resembles Formula One, but with a little more of an American presence. Throw in the four majors and you have a brilliant schedule for the top 70-100 guys, whatever the number is. We’d have, say a 22-event schedule. That would look pretty good to me.”