Could Rory McIlroy be plotting the ultimate about-face?
The golf star’s former agent, Andrew “Chubby” Chandler, floated the possibility of McIlroy making a stunning move to LIV Golf after the Northern Irishman served as the face of the PGA Tour’s fight with the rebel league — whose Saudi backers have recently talked with the Tour about joining forces.
“Rory is of the ilk that he’ll say something because he likes to have an opinion but he’s quite happy to apologize for it and that’s what he’s done,” Chandler told Bunkered. “If you were being cynical, you might say he’s going to sign for about £750 million [around $950 million] in a month’s time with LIV because he’s paving the way that LIV’s okay now, whereas it wasn’t.
“Who knows? He doesn’t need £750 million but it’s odd what he’s done and I’m sure it’s a possibility. If he does it or not, I don’t know, but if [Jon] Rahm can do it, most guys can do it.
“I think number one, there’s a 10% possibility he’s favoring his way to sign for LIV, but he realizes that the whole bickering and fighting is no good for golf. The man in the street must find it appalling the sums of money being spoken.”
McIlroy, 34, has softened his stance after leading the charge in speaking out against LIV Golf, saying last month he doesn’t want LIV defectors punished and wants the tours to come together for the best fields possible.
He had taken aim at some of golf’s biggest stars, who took nine-figure contracts from LIV, calling them “duplicitous” and stating that LIV Golf “legitimizes” Saudi Arabia’s place in the world.
McIlroy was also embroiled in a war of words with LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman, who at one point accused McIlroy of being “brainwashed” by PGA Tour brass.
When the PGA Tour announced in June it would be partnering with the Saudi Public Investment Fund in what was initially believed to be a merger with LIV, McIlroy said it was hard not to feel like a “sacrificial lamb” because he “put [him]self out there.”
“I still hate LIV,” McIlroy said at the time. “Like, I hate LIV. I hope it goes away, and I fully expect that it does.”
Suddenly, it seems, everything has changed.
“It’s typical Rory,” Chandler told Bunkered. “Rory is not shy in having an opinion and not slow to apologize if he’s got that wrong. When he turned pro in 2008 we were sat on a bench at Gleneagles and I had Rory telling me that the Ryder Cup meant nothing at all to him. ‘It was just an exhibition match. I’m here to win majors.’ There’s nobody bigger into the Ryder Cup now than Rory McIlroy.”
The PGA Tour recently struck a deal to receive a $3 billion investment from Strategic Sports Group, a group of billionaire sports owners, but an investment deal with the Saudi PIF has yet to be struck.