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Jun 07, 2023

LIV Golf exec calls Rory McIlroy 'little b****'

If golf’s mega-merger is going to quiet the war of words between the PGA Tour

If golf's mega-merger is going to quiet the war of words between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, it hasn't happened yet. It's Day 3 of golf's new reality and one anonymous LIV Golf executive has already described Rory McIlroy as a "little bitch."

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In an excerpt from his upcoming book on professional golf's epic riff, Alan Shipnuck reports that LIV Golf execs are celebrating that they will have access to all the PGA Tour's top stars now that a deal has been reached between the tour and the Saudi Public Investment Firm.

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"Now we can finally get Hideki (Matsuyama) and Jon Rahm. I would say every big name on the PGA Tour will get an offer. Except Rory. Nobody wants that little bitch on their team," the exec told Shipnuck in an interview.

The LIV Golf fantasy draft of PGA Tour stars that this unnamed exec is floating out there is a far cry from the future McIlroy was painting at Oakdale for the RBC Canadian Open.

"I think the one thing that I think was really misconstrued last, yesterday was all the headlines were PGA Tour merges with LIV, and LIV's got nothing to do with this," the golfer said. "It's the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and the Public Investment Fund are basically partnering to create a new company."

McIlroy seems to believe that golf's new reality will include the rolling up of LIV Golf as simply a blip in the history of the game, albeit one that clearly was the impetus for seismic change.

"I hate LIV. Like, I hope it goes away, and I would fully expect that it does," McIlroy said. "I would say an element of team golf might still stay. It certainly, in my opinion, and my hope is it won't, it won't be under the LIV umbrella. It's something that the PGA Tour will control, the PGA Tour will operate. And it will hopefully look very different to what LIV has been."

Over on the LIV Golf side, Shipnuck reports that Greg Norman held a conference call with LIV employees, and while many of them were expecting the worst, the message was quite the opposite.

"There will be no operational changes in 2023, 2024, 2025 and into the future," Norman reportedly said, according to Shipnuck. "LIV is a stand-alone entity and will continue to be that moving forward. And that comes right from the top."

Sounds like the fight for control of golf is far from settled.

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