Rory McIlroy denied LIV Golf want by Greg Norman after shock PGA Tour truce

Rory McIlroy’s need for LIV Golf to “go away” seems to be a futile request, judging by feedback from the breakaway tour’s CEO Greg Norman. It’s been a seismic week within the historical past of males’s golf after the warring PGA Tour introduced that it could merge with LIV Golf and the DP World Tour to kind one unified tour.

Such a proposition had beforehand appeared utterly unimaginable after the Saudi-funded LIV Golf tour efficiently lured quite a few big-name stars away from the PGA Tour with the promise of assured thousands and thousands in earnings on the brand new breakaway circuit.

A litigation battle has been waged between the PGA and LIV Golf with gamers from each side typically outspoken of their approval or disapproval of the developments within the males’s sport over the previous 18 months.

But gamers have been left shocked when a joint assertion was placed on on Tuesday saying that the three excursions have been successfully placing their variations apart to now work collectively.

Former world No 1 McIlroy, who has been a fierce critic of LIV Golf and successfully grew to become the poster boy of the PGA Tour because of this, confronted the press for the primary time because the announcement, on Wednesday.

During a frank and trustworthy briefing, he stated: “I still hate LIV. I hate LIV. I hope that it goes away and I fully expect that it does. And I think that’s where the distinction here is, this is the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour and the PIF (Public Investment Fund). Very different from LIV.

“All I’ve tried to do is defend what the PGA Tour is and what it stands for and I feel it’ll proceed to try this. Going ahead, there could also be a crew ingredient and you are going to see possibly me or possibly another person play in some form of crew golf, however I do not suppose it’ll appear like something that LIV has seemed and I feel that is a superb factor.”

Exact details of how a unified tour schedule between the three entities will look is a key detail that is still very much in its infancy, but when LIV Golf Chief Norman was asked about the groundbreaking development, the Australian remained steadfast in his belief that LIV’s way of doing things will not alter.

According to sources who spoke to Sports Illustrated (as per New Zealand outlet Stuff), Norman told around 100 LIV staffers on a conference call: “The spigot is now broad open for business sponsorships, blue-chip firms, TV networks. LIV is and can proceed to be a standalone enterprise. Our enterprise mannequin is not going to change.”

“We modified historical past and we’re not going wherever.”