Blake Davis
Rory McIlroy appears to be returning… to the PGA Tour policy board. McIlroy left the board in 2023, when he was replaced by Jordan Spieth, but lately there has been a groundswell of support for him to return to one of the organization’s governing bodies.
Webb Simpson recently voiced support for their seats to go to McIlroy; Simpson serves on the PGA Tour Enterprises policy council and board as a player advisor. Although he was unable to confirm such a move, McIlroy on Wednesday at the 2024 Zurich Classic addressed the rumors as reported by the Guardian.
“I think I can be helpful,” McIlroy said when responding to a hypothetical question about returning to the board. “I don’t think there has been much progress in the last eight months, and I was hopeful there would be. I think I could be helpful in the process… but only if people want me involved, I guess.
“When Webb and I talked, and he talked about the possibility of leaving the board, I said, ‘Look, if it was something other people wanted, I’d be happy to take that seat.’ And that was the conversation we had.
“…That’s the reason. I feel like I can be useful. I feel like I care a lot and I have really good experience and good connections within the game and around the broader sort of ecosystem and everything that’s going on. In the end Ultimately, it’s not up to me to just go back to the board. There’s a process that needs to be followed, but I’m willing to do it if that’s what people want, I think.”
This would be a significant move for all parties.
McIlroy was vocal during his previous tenure on the board, constantly fighting threats from LIV Golf while fighting for the existence of the PGA Tour. Last summer, he said he felt like a “sacrificial lamb” when Commissioner Jay Monahan appeared to reach a deal with the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund that sought to eventually merge interests between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf.
Then McIlroy suddenly resigned from the board in November.
“I just felt like something had to happen,” McIlroy said at the time. “I just didn’t feel like I could dedicate the time and energy to do it. I don’t mind being busy, but I like being busy doing my own thing. council that is spending a lot more time and a lot more energy on this than I am.”
Other current player directors alongside Simpson and Spieth are Tiger Woods, Patrick Cantlay, Peter Malnati and Adam Scott. All six sit on the PGA Tour’s political board and the new for-profit board PGA Tour Enterprises, which just received an investment of up to $3 billion from Strategic Sports Group.
These active players are joined on the PGA Tour Enterprises board by former player Joe Olgivie and six other members, including Monahan, four SSG representatives and Valero President Joe Gorder.
McIlroy has been an interesting voice since resigning from the board last fall. He has spoken frequently about what the world tour would look like, something that would only be possible with the consummation of the Tour’s proposed deal with the PIF (in which the fund would ostensibly make a similar investment to SSG and take up a combination of the leagues’ interests).
“I think it’s all a fantastic thing,” McIlroy said in February. “I think there has to be a Southern Hemisphere component: Australia, South Africa. Obviously there has to be a Far Eastern component, whether it’s Korea, Japan, China. Obviously, the Middle East as well. We’ve been going to the Middle East for a long time, but obviously to Dubai, to Saudi Arabia, and then kind of working from the East to the West and back to the United States for kind of a spring, summer.
“I don’t think it will be much different than it is now, but maybe the beginning and end of the year might look a little different. , but there definitely needs to be some adjustments.”
McIlroy, who has expressed that he is fine with LIV players returning to the PGA Tour without punishment — for the health of the game in general — and has consistently preached unification, also distanced himself somewhat from Spieth and others in February. He left a group chat with other top players and instead held a discussion with Spieth about the need for the Tour to finalize its deal with the PIF and bring the entire golf world together. At the time, McIlroy described the conversation with Spieth as “frank”.
Rory also addressed his differences with other board members on Wednesday.
“[I would manage those differences through] commitment, but also try to articulate your points as best you can and try to help people see the benefits of what unification could do for the game and what it could do for this tour in particular,” he said. It’s not unified right now for a reason, and there are still some hard feelings and things that need to be addressed, but I think at this point, for the good of the game, we all need to put those feelings aside and move forward together. “
