Rory McIlroy believes Donald Trump’s return to the White House could bring peace between the PGA Tour and the Saudi Arabia funded breakaway LIV circuit and has speculated that Elon Musk could play a key role in negotiations on golf’s future.
The US tour is involved in protracted negotiations with the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) aimed at healing a divisive split in men’s professional golf, where many leading stars remain banned from the PGA Tour. A proposed deal, first unveiled in June 2023, is likely to face opposition from America’s Department of Justice (DOJ), which has concerns over it potentially leading to breaches of anti-competition laws.
“Given what’s happened, I think that clears the way a little bit,” McIlroy told reporters after Trump claimed victory in the US presidential election. The DOJ is independent of the American government, but presidents can influence key appointments including the US attorney general and solicitor general. “He might be able to,” McIlroy said of Trump. “He’s got Elon Musk, who I think is the smartest man in the world, beside him. We might be able to do something if we can get Musk involved, too.”
Trump suggested earlier this week that he could solve golf’s so called “civil war”, saying on Bill Belichick’s Let’s Go podcast it would only take him “the better part of 15 minutes to get that deal done”. McIlroy, who is preparing for this week’s HSBC Abu Dhabi Championship, where a victory would hand him the Race to Dubai title for the third year in a row with one tournament to spare, added: “Yeah, I think from the outside looking in, it’s probably a little less complicated than it actually is. But obviously Trump has a great relationship with Saudi Arabia. He’s got a great relationship with golf. He’s a lover of golf. So, maybe. Who knows? But I think as the president of the United States again, he’s probably got bigger things to focus on than golf.”
The Northern Irishman, a member of the PGA Tour’s ‘transaction committee’, is expecting to be briefed by tour commissioner Jay Monahan before Thursday’s return to playing action after a four week break from competition. “I know Jay was in Saudi Arabia last week at the FII (Future Investment Initiative Institute) and was having some meetings,” the four times major champion said. “I know he’s briefing the transaction committee [on Wednesday]. So maybe some news comes out of that.”
Trump has praised the lucrative LIV tour for its “unlimited money”, and five of its tournaments have been been held at his courses since its inception in June 2022. During his victory speech, Trump asked celebrating Republicans to salute US Open champion Bryson DeChambeau, who joined the victorious candidate on stage while wearing a ‘Make America Great Again’ cap.
DeChambeau beat McIlroy at Pinehurst last June to claim the US Open and is the second LIV golfer after Brooks Koepka to land a major following a move to the breakaway setup.
McIlroy has never been a supporter of the Saudi Public Investment Fund and LIV Golf. In fact, at times he’s been the most vocal critic among PGA Tour players, saying last year that: “If LIV Golf was the last place to play golf on Earth, I would retire.”
His stance has softened with time, however, and the four-time majors champion made a candid observation speaking to reporters Wednesday ahead of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, saying that Donald Trump winning the U.S. presidential election could “clear the way” for a deal between the PGA Tour and the Saudi Public Investment Fund, or PIF, the sovereign fund that owns and operates LIV Golf. McIlroy was responding to a question about an unconfirmed report in a British tabloid that a deal had already been struck. “He might be able to [close a deal],” McIlroy said of Trump. “He’s got Elon Musk, who I think is the smartest man in the world, beside him. We might be able to do something if we can get Musk involved too.” The U.S. Department of Justice has long been viewed as an impediment to a deal because government officials have expressed concern that a foreign investment of this magnitude could violate antitrust laws. Negotiations have dragged on for a year and a half, but could accelerate under a Trump administration. Earlier this week on the “Let’s Go!” podcast with Jim Gray and Bill Belichick, Trump said: “It would take me the better part of 15 minutes to get that deal done” between the PGA Tour and the PIF.
LIV Golf hasn’t gone away. Neither has Trump.
The first Wednesday of November during leap years is a perilous time for public commentary as U.S. Presidential election results are debated in a manner just as partisan as the campaign that preceded it. This one is no different. Depending on whom you ask, one political party peddled faux populism and racism while displaying an astonishing appetite for conspiracy theories, while the other is woefully incapacitated by its indulgence of identity ideologues, Hamas groupies and gender jihadists. Which is to say there was already plenty to pick over without wondering if the election of Donald Trump would help professional golfers get paid more.
During a Wednesday press conference at a tournament in Abu Dhabi, Rory McIlroy was asked about progress in talks between the PGA Tour and the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia. “Given today’s news with what has happened in America, I think that clears the way a little bit. So we’ll see,” he offered, before adding that it would be “a huge moment” if the Department of Justice under Trump was more amenable to green-lighting a deal than Biden’s DOJ might have been.
In our hyper-polarized moment, even comments that are both bland and obvious can be construed as endorsing the election outcome, something McIlroy didn’t actually do. But those three words — “clears the way” — earned a pointedly sour reception. McIlroy gave the impression of welcoming the prospect of Trump interfering with a regulatory process to benefit a coddled group of golfers who’ve already alienated legions of fans weary of their entitlement and greed.
A few days ago, Trump claimed he could solve the PGA Tour-PIF dispute “in 15 minutes,” which at least acknowledges that it’s a more mundane matter than the Ukraine war, which he said he’d need 24 hours to end. “He might be able to,” McIlroy said in response. “He’s got Elon Musk, who I think is the smartest man in the world, beside him. We might be able to do something if we can get Musk involved, too.”
Even leaving aside the generous encomium for Musk, who has spent months amplifying racists and antisemites in his social media sewer, McIlroy knows better — a fact he quickly admitted. “I think from the outside looking in, it’s probably a little less complicated than it actually is. But obviously, Trump has a great relationship with Saudi Arabia. He’s got a great relationship with golf. He’s a lover of golf. So, maybe. Who knows? But I think as the president of the United States again, he’s probably got bigger things to focus on than golf.”
“A great relationship” is one way to describe a $2 billion Saudi donation to a hedge fund run by Trump’s son-in-law, but at least McIlroy’s last observation is beyond debate. Executives on both sides of this negotiation will know what impact, if any, the election will have. And if either has slow-played things to see if the review process is less aggressive under a Trump administration, they now have a date on which they’ll find out. But those are questions Jay Monahan gets paid handsomely to answer, not McIlroy.
Instead, what McIlroy inadvertently did was reinforce a widespread perception of myopic entitlement among Tour players. Millions of people awoke this morning with leaden uncertainty about things that actually matter — economic stability, support in times of war, global alliances, civil rights, basic healthcare, immigration status. That environment is sufficiently fraught without a golfer idly speculating on whether the election might be a treat for those impatient to get their hands on some Saudi riyal.
Anyone who has paid attention to the narrative in golf these past few years is probably immune to surprise at hearing such sentiments expressed, but this example will be jarring because of where the comments originated.
What has always made McIlroy likable is the sense that he has peripheral vision, a sense of the world and its issues outside of his privileged bubble. But that image took a hit Wednesday, overshadowed by the feeling that everyone now just has ‘PIF vision,’ that even he sounds like just another voice in a chorus asking, ‘What’s in it for me?’
That’s an unfair characterization of a man who has proven more thoughtful than most of his peers, but McIlroy has been around this thorny issue for a long time, and around divisive politics since childhood. He knows there are some questions that are best answered with a shrug and a ‘your guess is as good as mine’ deflection. This was obviously one of those.
Yet he chose to do what he always does in press conferences (not always wisely): answer the question he was asked. In this instance, on this day, he ought to have taken a lead from his late compatriot, Nobel Prize-winning poet Seamus Heaney: “Whatever you say, you say nothing.”
In the three-year history of LIV Golf, six tournaments have been held at Trump’s golf courses. The private equity firm of Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, received a reported $2-billion investment from the PIF.
McIlroy is now resigned to the fact that LIV Golf not only is here to stay but that the merger with the PGA Tour is inevitable.
“I think, at this point, I was maybe a little judgmental of the guys who went to LIV Golf at the start, and I think it was a bit of a mistake on my part because I now realize that not everyone is in my position or in Tiger Woods’ position,” McIlroy told the “Stick to Football” podcast in January.
