{"id":792156,"date":"2026-05-12T23:43:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T23:43:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/792156\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T23:43:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T23:43:15","slug":"rory-mcilroy-claims-he-knew-liv-was-in-trouble-and-breakaway-tour-was-always-a-risk-rory-mcilroy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/792156\/","title":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy claims he knew LIV was in trouble and breakaway tour was always a \u2018risk\u2019 | Rory McIlroy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rory McIlroy has revealed he heard rumblings of impending trouble for LIV Golf weeks before Saudi \u00adArabia\u2019s Public Investment Fund (PIF) \u00adconfirmed it would withdraw funding for the circuit<\/a>. The Masters champion believes the PIF approach highlights the danger of sport \u00adbecoming reliant on anything that can be affected by world affairs.<\/p>\n

LIV is engaged in a race against time to survive with PIF, which has bestowed more than $5bn (\u00a33.7bn) on the tour, to exit at the end of 2026. News of that, which emerged in the immediate aftermath of \u00adMcIlroy\u2019s \u00adsuccessful defence<\/a> at Augusta National last month, shocked those within LIV but not the Northern\u00a0Irishman.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was always a possibility,\u201d said McIlroy. \u201cI feel like a lot of us, \u00adincluding me, we almost knew before the [LIV] players did that this was going to happen. I was hearing about this back in March, April time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have friends over there. One of my best friends, Ricky [McCormick], caddies for Tom McKibbin. I would talk to him all the time about what was going on. I was saying to Ricky: \u2018Have you guys heard any of this stuff?\u2019 He was like: \u2018No, everything seems OK over here.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just feels like the rug was pulled from under their feet and everyone was sort of blindsided by it. That\u2019s the risk that those guys chose to take. There\u2019s a lot of uncertainty in the air right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rory McIlroy will return to action at the US PGA Championship on Thursday. Photograph: Eston Parker\/ISI Photos\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

McIlroy offered a laugh and an admission of \u201cI\u2019m glad I was wrong\u201d after taking a previous position of wanting the PGA Tour to accept funding from Saudi Arabia. Instead, it is LIV staring at a bleak future in a scenario at least partly linked to the Iran war.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone knows, with \u00adeverything that\u2019s happening in the Middle East, that had a lot to do [with it],\u201d \u00adMcIlroy said. \u201cBut whenever you have \u00adfunding tied so much to the geopolitical landscape in the world, that\u2019s a tricky road to navigate. Their priorities shifted, and that leaves LIV in a pretty precarious spot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Quick GuideMcIlroy drawn with Rahm and Spieth at US PGAShow\"\"<\/p>\n

Rory McIlroy will play alongside fellow multiple major champions Jon Rahm (pictured) and Jordan Spieth in the first two rounds of the US PGA Championship. The Northern Irishman, bidding to win successive majors after his Masters triumph last month, will start his campaign on the back nine at Aronimink Golf Club in Philadelphia at 8.40am local time (1.40pm BST) on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Spieth is out to complete the career grand slam with a victory, his last major win coming at the 2017 Open Championship, while Rahm is looking to add this to his US Open and Masters titles.<\/p>\n

England\u2019s Alex Fitzpatrick, who secured his tour card with victory alongside his brother, Matt, at the Zurich Classic last month, will be in the first group to tee off at 6.45am (11.45am BST).<\/p>\n

The world No 1 and defending champion, Scottie Scheffler, is in a stacked group alongside world No 4 Matt Fitzpatrick \u2013 who has three PGA Tour wins this season \u2013 and No 7 Justin Rose at 2.05pm (7.05pm BST). Rose is a consistent major performer and is one of only two players in the field, alongside Keegan Bradley, to have won at Aronimink before.<\/p>\n

British hopefuls Tommy Fleetwood and Robert MacIntyre are paired together, while the 2024 US PGA champion, Xander Schauffele, plays alongside three-time winner Brooks Koepka and England\u2019s Tyrrell Hatton. PA Media<\/b><\/p>\n

Photograph: Andrew Redington\/Getty Images North America<\/p>\n

Thank you for your feedback.<\/p>\n

McIlroy has made just one start after the Masters, last week in \u00adCharlotte, after skipping a planned appearance in the PGA Tour\u2019s earlier stop at Doral. In the same week, McIlroy was namechecked by Donald Trump while at a dinner to mark King Charles\u2019s visit to the United States. McIlroy returns to action at the \u00adsecond major of the year, the US PGA \u00adChampionship, at Aronimink from Thursday, having spent five hours scouting the venue last week, although he was troubled by a blister during practice and completed three holes on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The Masters champion was suffering discomfort in his right foot hours after revealing that he had removed the nail on his little toe earlier this week. \u201cSoftened it up in the shower and just ripped it off,\u201d McIlroy laughed before removing his sock to show off the results of his surgical handiwork to a handful of reporters shortly after his pre-tournament news conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was tentatively planning to play Doral, then I got invited to that White House state dinner on a Tuesday night, which I thought was a wonderful opportunity,\u201d McIlroy said. \u201cTo go down to Doral and then fly up to DC for that and then fly back down \u2026 if I wasn\u2019t giving my 100% attention to the tournament, then there\u2019s no reason to play it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to do the state dinner, and if I was going to do that, it was probably better that I take that week to practise and prepare, come up here and see the golf course, and then go into Quail Hollow feeling more ready to play.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy has revealed he heard rumblings of impending trouble for LIV Golf weeks before Saudi \u00adArabia\u2019s Public…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":792157,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[1430,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-792156","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116564263419209491","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=792156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/792157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=792156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=792156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=792156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}