Asked about Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) pulling its funding from LIV Golf, Rory McIlroy said he’s glad to have egg on his face.
After previously being in favour of a PIF investment in the PGA Tour, the back-to-back Masters champion says he’s happy to be wrong on this one.
“I’m glad I was wrong,” McIlroy said at the PGA Championship’s media day on Tuesday. “I can admit when I’m wrong and that’s one that I did get wrong. I think this was always a possibility to happen. I think everyone knows with everything that’s happening in the Middle East that had a lot to do [with the decision], but whenever you have funding tied so much to the geopolitical landscape in the world, that’s a tricky road to navigate.”
With news emerging at the end of last month that funding for LIV would be pulled after the 2026 season, McIlroy says the potentiality of this outcome was an open secret amongst those on tour. The news didn’t come out of the blue.
“ I feel like a lot of us in the room, including me, we almost knew before the players did that this was going to happen,” McIlroy said. “Like I was hearing about this back in March, April time. And I have friends over there. One of my best friends, Ricky, caddies for Tom McKibbin, who’s over there. I would talk to him all the time about what’s going on and I was saying to Ricky, even before [LIV’s] Mexico [event in mid-April], like ‘Have you guys heard any of this stuff?’ and he was like, ‘No, everything seems okay over here.’ And then it just feels like the rug was pulled from under their feet and everyone was sort of blindsided by it. But again, that’s the risk that those guys chose to take and, as I said, it leaves a lot of uncertainty in the air right now.”
There will be 11 LIV golfers competing in this week’s PGA Championship at Aronimink Golf Club near Philadelphia. The only previous champion in the group is 2010 winner Martin Kaymer. Among the other competitors are Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson and Cam Smith.
McIlroy, 37, is a two-time PGA Championship winner. His first victory came at Kiawah Island in 2012. McIlroy then won a second in 2014 at Valhalla Golf Club. He tied for 47th at last year’s event.
