Rory McIlroy has backtracked on plans to return to the PGA Tour policy board, saying the process had reopened “old wounds”.
The four-time major winner had looked set to replace Webb Simpson on the board in an effort to help get a potential deal across the line between the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour and the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, which is behind the breakaway LIV Golf League.
Complicated
“It 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 said.
“I think there was a subset of people on the board that were maybe uncomfortable with me coming back on for some reason.
“I think the best course of action is Webb just stays on and sees out his term, and I think he’s gotten to a place where he’s comfortable with doing that and I just sort of keep doing what I’m doing.
“So yeah, I put my hand up to help and it was, I wouldn’t say it was rejected, it was a complicated process to get through to put me back on there. So that’s all fine, no hard feelings and we’ll all move on.”
McIlroy was initially a vocal critic of LIV Golf but has softened his stance since peace talks between the three tours emerged last year and his Ryder Cup teammate Jon Rahm joined the circuit. But the Northern Irishman has previously highlighted disagreements with Patrick Cantlay and Jordan Spieth over the future of golf and a potential merger involving PIF.
McIlroy: peace maker
“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.
“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.”