Pretty soon PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan is about to be saying, “Et tu, Rory?”
Or so it’s being reported across the pond by City A.M. in London that Rory McIlroy could bolt for LIV Golf in an $850 million blockbuster deal that’d change the entire landscape of the sport.
If Jon Rahm signing on to LIV for $350 million didn’t move the needle as much as expected, Rory’s decision would swing everything. It may actually be the fastest path to a LIV-PGA Tour merger that’s been long discussed but has seen little progress to date.
Whether you want to call Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) the most textbook case of sportswashing with bloody oil money of all-time, or you bury your head in the sand and choose not to think about it, the PIF taking over professional golf is inevitable. It’s the epitome of F*ck You Money. Beyond Monopoly Money. They can buy out everyone, everything, every entity, every property.
The PIF is currently valued at $925 billion with a “B.” An $850 million fee to wrest Rory from the PGA Tour is literal, mathematical pocket change for the Saudi powers that be.
And look, I’m not acting like every single sponsor or what have you that’s affiliated with the PGA Tour is 100% squeaky clean. You dig deep enough, you can find any which way in which the things you support or the things you do in your life would make you seem like a hypocrite. In this particular instance, it’s just so brash, blatant, and frankly a little funny when it comes to the sheer amount of wealth the PIF has.
Like, why doesn’t the PIF buy out the PGA Tour outright? I feel like they easily could. They already have so many of the big names on their circuit. Not that anybody really cares about LIV, and not that any of their tournaments carry any weight. Their biggest storyline to me is Anthony Kim’s comeback, which will likely take multiple years to bear any real fruit if it ever does.
With Rory joining the fold, LIV would actually be relevant. For him to go all-in like this and take out an ownership stake, after being hyper-critical of everything LIV Golf stood for and being the poster boy for the PGA Tour, it’d be one of the bigger plot twists in all of sports history.
But again, I wouldn’t blame Rory, hold it against him, or think he was morally compromised. I’m not going to feign outrage and say, “BUT BUT BUT, HE WAS ALL HOLIER THAN THOU BEFORE AND NOW HE’S DOING THISSSS!?” Some people are already starting to do so and it’s frankly obnoxious.
Yes, it’s a massive money grab, yet it’s also a strategic play to unify the world of men’s golf in swift fashion. In the event that Rory can net himself this type of individual deal, and hammer out a merger almost right away? Talk about a win-win for the guy.
Ever since it was self-evident how LIV and the PGA Tour were mutually hurting each other months ago, I started to think of LIV similar to how I’m coming to terms with Scottie Scheffler’s greatness after his second Masters victory. Scottie has a bad-looking golf swing, a bland demeanor, and doesn’t exactly scream, “STAR POWER!” like Rory and many of the other great golfers do.
Nevertheless, innocent-looking Scottie is an on-course assassin who’ll just keep pummeling fools and winning majors for years to come.
Pick your battles, right? We might as well embrace the inevitable reality that Scottie is that good. Just as we might as well embrace Rory’s seemingly unavoidable pivot to LIV Golf, especially if it means a merger gets fleshed out in the nearer future.
