Rory McIlroy admits he regrets actions over LIV Golf vs PGA Tour involvement

Rory McIlroy has expressed regret over his outspoken animosity toward rival Saudi Arabia-funded LIV Golf. The decorated Northern Irish golfer, who served on the PGA Tour's policy board, railed against the damage LIV Golf was causing to the men's golf landscape and urged golfers not to join the controversial competitor.

Speaking ahead of this week’s RBC Canadian Open, he said: “In hindsight, I wish I hadn’t have gotten involved or not ‘hadn’t have gotten involved’ but hadn’t have gotten as deeply involved in it, and I’ve articulated that.

“I’ve said that I hold no grudge to the guys that chose to go and play on LIV. Everyone’s got their own decisions to make, and everyone has the right to make those decisions. My whole thing is I’m just disappointed what it’s done to – not to the game of golf, the game of golf will be fine – but men’s professional golf and this sort of divide we have at the minute.

“Hopefully, we’re on a path to sorting that out and getting that to come back together, but, yeah, hindsight’s always 20/20, but in hindsight I wish I hadn’t got as deeply involved as I have.”

LIV Golf made a earth-shattering entrance onto the professional golf scene, which had been dominated almost exclusively by the PGA Tour for decades. With backing from the Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, the global league attracted many of the world's elite golfer's with mammoth event purses — Charl Schwartzel won $4.75 million, a professional golf record, after winning LIV's inaugural event in 2022. But from the start, McIlroy was always a stern critic of the breakaway league.

"[There's] no room in the golf world for LIV Golf," McIlroy previously said to CBS Sports' Kyle Porter. "If LIV went away tomorrow I'd be super happy. I'm surprised at a lot of these guys because they say one thing and do another. I don't understand that. I don't know if that's for legal reasons, I have no idea. It's pretty duplicitous on their part to say one thing and then do another thing."

A number of golf's most recognizable names, including Brooks Koepka and Phil Mickelson, defected to the PGA's upstart competitors, and former tour staple and world No. 1 Dustin Johnson claimed LIV's inaugural individual championship in 2022. However, a surprising truce emerged between the two feuding leagues, then embroiled in a costly legal battle, that laid a framework for an eventual merger, and McIlroy has since softened his stance towards LIV Golf and its players.

"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. "We all turn professional to make a living playing the sports that we do, and I think that's what I realized over the last two years. I can't judge people for making that decision."

McIlroy recently sought a return to the PGA Tour policy board after stepping down in late 2023, but this move was rejected as other members were reportedly "uncomfortable" with the move.