{"id":67314,"date":"2025-05-02T03:02:12","date_gmt":"2025-05-02T03:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/67314\/"},"modified":"2025-05-02T03:02:12","modified_gmt":"2025-05-02T03:02:12","slug":"golf-legend-disagrees-with-rory-mcilroy-and-calls-for-jon-rahm-and-bryson-dechambeau-punishment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/67314\/","title":{"rendered":"Golf legend disagrees with Rory McIlroy and calls for Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau punishment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rory McIlroy may have completed one of golf\u2019s most incredible U-turns, but not everyone is on board.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The recent Masters winner said he was happy to welcome back LIV players to the PGA Tour<\/a> in January having previously been one of the Saudi league\u2019s most vocal critics.<\/p>\n

\"AUGUSTA,<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

McIlroy recently said he’d welcome back LIV players to the PGA TourCredit: Getty\"Lanny<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

Lanny Wadkins holds a different opinion over players that joined LIV GolfCredit: Golf Today<\/p>\n

Yet a fellow PGA Champion, Lanny Wadkins, doesn\u2019t share the same view as the Northern Irishmen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Speaking on NBC Sports, he said: \u201cI would like to see Jon Rahm<\/a> and Koepka and DeChambeau play more often.<\/p>\n

“That would be nice, but there\u2019s also got to be repercussions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think you can just go to LIV, take $100million and walk back in and expect to have the same status you\u2019ve always had on this tour.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not fair to the guys who supported the tour and have been here the whole time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my mind there\u2019s got to be repercussions.<\/p>\n

“Whether it\u2019s fines, suspensions, whatever for it to work and I\u2019ll be damned if I can figure it out. Good luck to the guys trying.\u201d<\/p>\n

LIV caused major disruption to the world of golf in 2021 when their breakaway league was founded and began poaching players with extraordinary offers.<\/p>\n

Accused of sportswashing due to Saudi human rights abuses, the quality of competition has also been panned with players paid beforehand and viewing figures low.<\/p>\n

Yet Rahm\u2019s 2022 move as the world No.1 transformed the debate, and negotiations of a merger have been going on for almost two years.<\/p>\n

\"McIlroy<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

McIlroy admitted he’d completely changed his view back in JanuaryCredit: BBC<\/p>\n

During that time McIlroy\u2019s stance has also softened, and at the start of 2025 he admitted a full U-turn.<\/p>\n

“Life is about choices. Guys made choices to go and play LIV. Guys made choices to stay here,” he remarked.<\/p>\n

“It’s hard to punish people. I don’t think there should be a punishment.<\/p>\n

“If people still have eligibility on this tour and they want to come back and play or you want to try and do something, let them come back.<\/p>\n

“I’ve changed my tune on that because I see where golf is.<\/p>\n

“And I see that having a diminished PGA Tour and having a diminished LIV Tour or anything else is bad for both parties.”<\/p>\n

Zurich Classic organisers have Rory McIlroy in stitches on first tee with funny introduction for Masters champion<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy may have completed one of golf\u2019s most incredible U-turns, but not everyone is on board. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67315,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4106],"tags":[11080,2826,4366,34073,34074,4299,4298,4287,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-67314","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-bryson-dechambeau","9":"tag-golf","10":"tag-golf-news","11":"tag-golf-updates","12":"tag-jon-rahm","13":"tag-liv-golf","14":"tag-pga-tour","15":"tag-rory-mcilroy","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114436016939812690","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67314\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}