Rory McIlroy’s LIV stance proving unpopular on PGA Tour

Rory McIlroy’s new stance on LIV Golf players returning to their old domains is not proving universally popular with the big names on the PGA Tour.

McIlroy raised eyebrows at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am last week by saying “let them come back” to the US circuit without being penalised for moving to the Saudi-backed league.

“I don’t think there should be a punishment,” McIlroy said. “Obviously I’ve changed my tune on that because I see where golf is and I see that having a diminished PGA Tour and having a diminished LIV Tour or anything else is bad for both parties.”

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It’s fair to say not everyone has had the same change of heart as the four-time major champion. Justin Thomas says he ‘would have a hard time’ with LIV players reintegrating into the tour ‘that easily.’

Rickie Fowler insisted there was “no direct road” back for LIV players as he stressed he was in a ‘different spot’ to McIlroy on the contentious matter.

And we can now add Scottie Scheffler to the growing list of players who believe LIV players should not be simply be allowed to tee it up again on the PGA Tour without consequence for their defection.

“I have no bad blood toward the guys that left,” the world No.1 explained. “But a path toward coming back, it wouldn’t be a very popular decision, I think, if they just came back like nothing ever happened.

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“They did kind of leave and – they left our Tour, that’s just part of it. There should be a pathway back for them, but they definitely shouldn’t be able to come back without any sort of contribution to the Tour.”

Uncertainty still reigns in men’s pro golf as the PGA Tour and DP World Tour negotiate a deal with the Saudi Public Investment Fund bankrolling the LIV enterprise.

A completely unified landscape still appears distant, and while Scheffler is willing to welcome back some of his old rivals from LIV in the future, he reiterated that it shouldn’t be that simple.

“We remained loyal to a tour, a tour that was loyal to us,” he added. “I built my entire career here on the PGA Tour and I wasn’t willing to leave it. I dreamt of playing on this tour. Some of the guys that left, maybe that wasn’t for them.

“But I think that if they want a pathway back, that there should be one, but it definitely shouldn’t just be coming back in the first week they want to come back and play. There should be some sort of caveat to them getting back on our tour.”

Ben Parsons joined bunkered as a Content Producer in 2023 and is the man to come to for all of the latest news, across both the professional and amateur games. Formerly of The Mirror and Press Association, he is a member at Halifax Golf Club and is a long-suffering fan of both Manchester United and the Wales rugby team.