‘I’m so sick of it:’ Rory McIlroy gives another blistering take on potential Saudi Arabia-backed golf league
I’m so sick of it.
That’s Rory McIlroy’s take on talking, hearing and being asked about the proposed Super Golf League, which is backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign fund and would rival the PGA Tour. The noise has ramped up on the Greg Norman-led league that would pay exorbitant guaranteed money and potentially siphon off some of the game’s biggest names.
A few players and others have chimed in on what they have heard, but to date, there has not been one player who has said he would jump to a rival league. And there have been reports that PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan will ban any player from the Tour if he joins the Super Golf League.
McIlroy, 32, has repeatedly said he would not join the league and at times has been pointed with his remarks about the proposed circuit. But McIlroy’s voice carries weight and carries far, and his take will continue to be sought.
Rory McIlroy speaks at a news conference at the 2022 Genesis Invitational at the Riviera Country Club. (Photo: Robyn Beck/AFP)
“Not so Super League,” McIlroy said when a question about the league was being asked Wednesday during his news conference ahead of the Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club north of Los Angeles.
“Oh, I’m so sick of it.”
But he sucked it up and answered follow-up questions.
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“I guess I’m intrigued who would (join). Certainly for the younger guys, like it just seems a massive risk,” McIlroy said. “I can maybe make sense of it for the guys that are getting to the latter stages of their career, for sure. I don’t think that’s what a rival golf league is really; that’s not what they’re going to want, is it?
“They don’t want some sort of league that’s like a pre‑Champions tour. I don’t know. I understand the financial part of it for guys that are later on in their career. But you look at the people that have already said no. (Jon) Rahm, No. 1 in the world, Collin Morikawa, myself. Like, you’ve got the top players in the world saying no, so that has to tell you something.”
Add Tiger Woods, Brooks Koepka and Justin Thomas to the list, too.
The world No. 5 and four-time major champion serves on the PGA Tour’s policy board and, in addressing the Saudi Arabia’s possible league, McIlroy alluded to the PGA Tour’s financial strength.
“There’s a forecast through 2025. Any forecast that the PGA Tour has produced in the last 10 years, they’ve hit their target. So the forecast for 2025, it looks good,” he said. “I think the executive leadership team on the Tour are doing a really good job. It’s sort of a turbulent time in the world of professional golf but I think we’ve got the right people sort of doing the right things.”
While he wouldn’t share numerical details, McIlroy did say, “There’s a ton of guys out here that are going to get rich if they play well, put it that way.”
As for McIlroy’s recent play, he went to Holywood to get in the right frame of mind for Hollywood this week. McIlroy spent a week in Holywood, Northern Ireland, where he was raised, after a disappointing finish in the Dubai Desert Classic three weeks ago. McIlroy hit his approach from 255 yards to the par-5 18th on the final day into the water and fell to third place.
“Obviously the end of that tournament in Dubai was disappointing, made a bad swing at a bad time, but I did a lot of really good things in there that I can’t forget about,” he said. “I try to just focus on the couple negatives that were there and tried to work on those last week and felt like I’ve put in quite a bit of time and quite a bit of work since Dubai and game actually feels pretty good coming here.
“My game feels in a much better place coming into this year at this event compared to last year. I didn’t play so well here last year, and I was sort of, sort of searching a little bit for things, but game feels a lot more settled this time around.”
Since winning his 20th PGA Tour title at the CJ Cup at The Summit in Las Vegas in October, which was his second victory of last season and earned him lifetime status once he completes playing 15 years on the Tour (he’s in year 14), McIlroy has four top-18 finishes in as many starts.
In five starts at Riviera, McIlroy’s never been worse than a tie for 20th. He missed the cut last year and tied for fifth and fourth the two previous trips to L.A. He loves the course and feels his game is in a good place, especially after meeting up with his coach, Michael Bannon, in Holywood, and spending time with friends and family.
“He was with me before the Middle East in Florida for a week. It was nice. I hadn’t been home in over two years just because of COVID, so it was nice to get back, nice to see some people, nice to introduce our daughter to her extended family,” McIlroy said. “It was nice. I got a stomach virus in the middle of that week, so I didn’t see much of anyone for a while, which wasn’t great. It was nice to be home. I don’t think you realize how much you miss it until you go back and see some people. It was certainly nice, a nice way to get over the disappointment of Dubai.”
