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Rory McIlroy has called on the PGA Tour to make considerable change as it continues to stave off threat from other golf streams.

The introduction of LIV and the meteoric rise of YouTube golf has ‘diminished’ the established circuit, according to McIlroy, leaving it in need of refurbishment.

However, the 34-year-old insists that the PGA Tour is an entertaining product that is simply caught up in a whirlwind ecosystem.

“I think it already has been diminished,” McIlroy said.

“YouTube is like golf entertainment adjacent, whatever. Those guys are killing it. They found a niche and it’s really cool and it serves a purpose for a lot of people.

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“But look, I would much rather sit down and watch real golfers play real tournaments and that’s just my opinion. That to me is more entertaining. But I understand that other people want something different and that’s totally fine as well.

“I think there’s space for all of this. Yeah, I can see when the golf consumer might get a little fatigued of everything that’s sort of available to them.

“So, to scale it back a little bit and maybe have a little more scarcity in some of the stuff that we do, like the NFL, I think mightn’t be a bad thing.”

Cutting back the PGA Tour schedule, which starts in January and wraps up in August, is at the top of McIlroy’s priority list.

He argued that around 47 or 50 tournaments each year is “definitely too many,” while urging the Tour to host events at iconic venues.

Of course, McIlroy addressed the elephant in the room – bringing the game’s best players back together.

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“I think great venues like this one, I think that’s a big part of it,” he said. “The best players competing against each other a little more often, which we’ve tried to do on this tour.

“Are we missing three or four guys that went elsewhere? Probably, but still the majority of probably the best players in the world are still here.

“There are a lot of things about golf that are very different than other sports, but I think that’s what makes it unique. I don’t think we should try to dumb down golf to appeal to more people.

“Golf is golf at the end of the day. It’s been this way for hundreds of years.”

Meanwhile, McIlroy said that tackling pace of play is another obvious contender for making professional golf more entertaining.


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John Turnbull A graduate of the University of Stirling, John joined the bunkered team in 2023 as a Content Producer, with a responsibility for covering all breaking news, tour news, grassroots content and much more besides. A keen golfer, he plays the majority of his golf at Falkirk Golf Club. Top of his 'bucket list' is a round of Pebble Beach... ideally in the company of Gareth Bale.

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