Rory McIlroy claims he knew LIV was in trouble and breakaway tour was always a ‘risk’

Rory McIlroy has revealed he heard rumblings of impending trouble for LIV Golf weeks before the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund confirmed it would withdraw funding for the circuit. The Masters champion believes the PIF approach highlights the danger of sport becoming reliant on anything that can be affected by world affairs.

LIV is engaged in a race against time to survive with the PIF, which has bestowed more than $5bn on the tour, to exit at the end of 2026. News of that, which emerged in the immediate aftermath of McIlroy’s successful defence at Augusta National last month, shocked even those within LIV but not the Northern Irishman.

“It was always a possibility,” said McIlroy. “I feel like a lot of us, including 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.

“I have friends over there. One of my best friends, Ricky, caddies for Tom McKibbin. I would talk to him all the time about what was going on. I was saying to Ricky: ‘Have you guys heard any of this stuff?’ He was like: ‘No, everything seems OK over here.’

“It just feels like the rug was pulled from under their feet and everyone was sort of blindsided by it. That’s the risk that those guys chose to take. There’s a lot of uncertainty in the air right now.”

McIlroy offered a laugh and an admission of “I’m glad I was wrong” 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.

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

“I think everyone knows, with everything that’s happening in the Middle East, that had a lot to do [with it],” McIlroy added. “But whenever you have funding tied so much to the geopolitical landscape in the world, that’s a tricky road to navigate. Their priorities shifted, and that leaves LIV in a pretty precarious spot.”

McIlroy has made just one start after the Masters, last week in Charlotte, after skipping a planned appearance in the PGA Tour’s earlier stop at Doral. In the same week, McIlroy was namechecked by Donald Trump while at a dinner to mark King Charles’s visit to the United States. McIlroy returns to action at the second major of the year, the US PGA Championship, at Aronimink from Thursday. He spent five hours scouting the venue a week past Friday.

“I 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,” McIlroy said. “To go down to Doral and then fly up to DC for that and then fly back down … if I wasn’t giving my 100% attention to the tournament, then there’s no reason to play it.

“I 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.”