Rory McIlroy has admitted that some of Phil Mickelson's ideas on remodeling the PGA Tour had merit, but says that he went about them the wrong way.
Six-time Major winner Mickelson is one of the biggest names to leave for LIV Golf, and didn’t go quietly, calling out the PGA Tour’s “obnoxious greed” and its policy on media rights, saying that the challenge of LIV Golf presented a once in a lifetime opportunity to reshape the PGA Tour.
With Commissioner Jay Monahan announcing unprecedented changes to the PGA Tour ahead of this week’s Tour Championship, McIlroy was asked whether Phil deserves any credit for prompting the moves.
McIlroy said: “As much as I don’t want to give Phil any kind of merit at all, yeah there were certain points he was trying to make, but there’s a way to go about them, there’s a way to collaborate. You get all the top players in the world together and you get them on the same page. You then go to the Tour and you suggest ideas, and you work together.
“This was pure collaboration, this wasn’t some renegade group trying to take some sort of power grab of the PGA Tour. This is ‘okay, how can we make this Tour better for everyone that’s going to play on it now, and everyone that’s going to play on the PGA Tour going forward’. Some of his ideas, did they have merit? Of course they did, but he just didn’t approach it the right way.”
McIlroy was part of the players meeting, held in Delaware last week ahead of the BMW Championship, and has since announced the creation of a tech company with Tiger Woods. That new company, TMRW Sports, is behind TGL, a new technology focussed golf league in association with the PGA Tour that will start in 2024.
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