{"id":29198,"date":"2025-11-27T20:00:47","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T01:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/2025\/11\/27\/rory-mcilroy-pga-tour-and-irrational-liv-golf-merger-unlikely\/"},"modified":"2025-11-27T20:00:47","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T01:00:47","slug":"rory-mcilroy-pga-tour-and-irrational-liv-golf-merger-unlikely","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/2025\/11\/27\/rory-mcilroy-pga-tour-and-irrational-liv-golf-merger-unlikely\/","title":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy: PGA Tour and &#8216;irrational&#8217; LIV Golf merger unlikely"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Rory McIlroy doubts the rift in golf will be repaired after the &#8220;unreasonable&#8221; spending on the LIV series created such a rift in the sport.<\/p>\n<p>There were hopes that the proposed merger could mend the painful schism that arose when the breakaway Saudi league poached a number of its top stars in big-money deals in 2021.<\/p>\n<p>But more than two-and-a-half years after the issue was discussed, the two parties still don&#8217;t seem any closer to a solution.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Some other sports have been divided for a long time,&#8221; McIlroy said on CNBC&#8217;s CEO Council Forum. &#8220;For example, if you look at boxing, or what&#8217;s happening in American auto racing like Indy or NASCAR, I think it would be better to have uniformity when it comes to golf in general.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut I think it will be very difficult to achieve that given what has happened in the last few years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs supporters of the traditional structure of men&#8217;s professional golf, we have to recognize that they were trying to deal with people who were behaving in a way that was irrational just in terms of the capital that was allocated to them and the money that they were spending.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"inline inline-photo full\">\n<figure><picture><source data-srcset=\"https:\/\/a.espncdn.com\/combiner\/i?img=%2Fphoto%2F2025%2F0929%2Fr1552710_1296x729_16%2D9.jpg&amp;w=570&amp;format=jpg, https:\/\/a.espncdn.com\/combiner\/i?img=%2Fphoto%2F2025%2F0929%2Fr1552710_1296x729_16%2D9.jpg&amp;w=1140&amp;cquality=40&amp;format=jpg 2x\" media=\"(min-width: 376px)\"><source data-srcset=\"https:\/\/a.espncdn.com\/combiner\/i?img=%2Fphoto%2F2025%2F0929%2Fr1552710_1296x729_16%2D9.jpg&amp;w=375, https:\/\/a.espncdn.com\/combiner\/i?img=%2Fphoto%2F2025%2F0929%2Fr1552710_1296x729_16%2D9.jpg&amp;w=750&amp;cquality=40&amp;format=jpg 2x\" media=\"(max-width: 375px)\"\/><\/source><\/picture><\/figure>\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cIt&#8217;s been four or five years and they still haven&#8217;t made a profit, but they have to keep spending that money just to maintain what they have.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Many of their contracts are expiring. They will ask for the same number or even more. LIV has spent $5 billion or $6 billion so far and will have to spend another $5 billion or $6 billion just to maintain the status quo.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m much more comfortable on the PGA Tour side than I am on the PGA Tour side, but you never know what\u2019s going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>LIV golfer Bryson DeChambeau admits that their relationship is currently too far apart.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I hope something big happens, but I don&#8217;t think it will happen anytime soon,&#8221; he told Fox News.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think there is too much desire on both sides and not enough on the other side to give.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We are too far apart in many ways. It will take time, but I believe that ultimately the game of golf will grow internationally.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rory McIlroy doubts the rift in golf will be repaired after the &#8220;unreasonable&#8221; spending on the LIV series created such a rift in the sport. There were hopes that the proposed merger could mend the painful schism that arose when the breakaway Saudi league poached a number of its top stars in big-money deals in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24374,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[17],"class_list":{"0":"post-29198","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}