The golf world has seen a lot of shifts since the delay of the PIF merger, but one of the biggest changes? It sure is Rory McIlroy’s evolving stance on LIV. Just over a year ago, he dismissed LIV as “dead in the water,” but now, he’s admitting its impact. His view has been gradually shifting, especially after he acknowledged how LIV has pushed the PGA Tour to modernize its “outdated system” for the betterment of the game.
In 2023, McIlroy even pointed out how the PGA Tour’s new no-cut, smaller-field events are a direct response to LIV’s format. Now, he acknowledged the impact of such high purse events. Back in 2019, Rory McIlroy appeared in nineteen events and made seventeen cuts. He won three of them and took home $7,785,286. That might seem a lot right? Not really. In 2024, he played nineteen events and won only two of them, and yet earned more than what he earned back then.
The Northern Irishman took home a whopping $10,893,790, and skip to 2025, he has only played one event so far, and after winning it, has already managed to take home a whopping $3,600,000. Imagine the leap. The PGA Tour did all of this to stay ahead of LIV. One could easily assume this.
Taking to this, McIlroy said, “…I look at what I made in 2019 before LIV came around and I look at what I’ve made after LIV came around and it’s very different…. @TrackingRory. “Like I don’t know what to say, I earn more money now than I did in 2019 and if LIV hadn’t come around, I don’t know if I would have been able to say that.” Guess Phil Mickelson was right all along! And now the golf community urges him to say sorry to him. They wrote, “Say “thank you, Phil”! Not “FU” Phil. Apologies are in order.”
Say “thank you Phil”! Not “FU” Phil. Apologies are in order.
— M Halloran (@mikehal121) February 12, 2025
This is a developing story..
The post Calls Mount for Phil Mickelson To Get a Public Apology As LIV Golf’s Massive Impact on PGA Tour Surfaces appeared first on EssentiallySports.