Rory McIlroy has compared the brokering of a deal between the PGA Tour and the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) to the Northern Ireland Good Friday peace agreement after his attempt to rejoin the circuit’s policy board was blocked.
When it was revealed two weeks ago that McIlroy had agreed with Webb Simpson to take his place as a player-director it was expected that the World No 2’s reappointment alongside the likes of Tiger Woods, Jordan Spieth and Patrick Cantlay would be a formality.
However, on Wednesday ahead of the Wells Fargo Championship, McIlroy announced that members of the 12-strong board had stopped his attempts to help steer through a peace deal between the Saudis and the PGA Tour to end golf’s civil war.
“There was a subset of people on the board that were maybe uncomfortable with me coming back on for some reason,” McIlroy said at Quail Hollow. “I think it just got pretty complicated and pretty messy and I think with the way it happened, I think it opened up some old wounds and scar tissue from things that have happened before.”
McIlroy quit the board late last year citing personal and professional reasons for his surprise exit. Yet after seeing the board securing more than £1billion of private US investment at the same time as witnessing barely any progress made in the PIF negotiations, McIlroy declared that, as he would “rather the men’s golf professional landscape survived this, I’m happy to do my bit.”
McIlroy was initially perhaps the most vocal critic of LIV Golf and even after merger plans were prospectively agreed last summer, he insisted he would rather retire than play on LIV Golf. But he has softened his stance and has declared he is “impatient” to get a deal done before more big names are lured to the breakaway league and believes his sport can take inspiration from the remarkable events in his own country before the turn of the Millennium.
“I think we’ve got this window of opportunity to get it done, because both sides from a business perspective I wouldn’t say need to get it done, but it makes sense,” McIlroy said.
“I sort of liken it to when Northern Ireland went through the peace process and the Good Friday Agreement, neither side was happy. Catholics weren’t happy, Protestants weren’t happy, but it brought peace and then you just sort of learn to live with whatever has been negotiated, right?
“That was in 1998 and 20, 25, 30 years ahead, my generation doesn’t know any different. It’s just this is what it’s always been like and we’ve never known anything but peace. It’s my little way of trying to think about it and trying to make both sides see that there could be a compromise here.
“Yeah, it’s probably not going to feel great for either side, but if it’s a place where the game of golf starts to thrive again and we can all get back together, then I think that’s ultimately a really good thing.”
McIlroy did not name any of the individuals who resisted him rejoining the board and insisted that “there are no hard feelings”. He also emphasised it would have been a “complicated process” for him simply to be a direct substitute for Simpson.
However, there can be little doubt that this snub is indicative of the struggle going on in the background and once again Cantlay is the focus.
Golfweek, the influential American magazine and website, went as far on Wednesday to name Cantlay as the ringleader for those against a PIF merger and back in December, Telegraph Sport quoted an unnamed high-ranking official who blamed the World No 8 for the players’ revolt against the Tour executives that ultimately led to Saudi anger and, as a result, for Jon Rahm’s £400 million defection.
McIlroy has made no secret of his strained relationship with Cantlay, saying “we see the world quite differently” and recently had an exchange of views with Jordan Spieth, another policy board member, after the American suggested the Tour’s multi-billion dollar deal with Strategic Sports Group meant investment from the PIF might not be needed.
Simpson will remain in position until his term finishes in 18 months. Both Cantlay and McIlroy are playing this week in Charlotte.
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