Rory McIlroy believes Donald Trump’s return to the White House could bring peace between the PGA Tour and the Saudi Arabia funded breakaway LIV circuit and has speculated that Elon Musk could play a key role in negotiations on golf’s future.
The US tour is involved in protracted negotiations with the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) aimed at healing a divisive split in men’s professional golf, where many leading stars remain banned from the PGA Tour.
A proposed deal, first unveiled in June 2023, is likely to face opposition from America’s Department of Justice (DOJ), which has concerns over it potentially leading to breaches of anti-competition laws.
“Given what’s happened, I think that clears the way a little bit,” McIlroy told reporters after Trump claimed victory in the US presidential election.
The DOJ is independent of the American government, but presidents can influence key appointments including the US attorney general and solicitor general.
Trump suggested earlier this week that he could solve golf’s so called “civil war”, saying on Bill Belichick’s Let’s Go podcast it would only take him “the better part of 15 minutes to get that deal done”.
McIlroy, who has previously suggested that America’s DOJ is the big stumbling block to ratification of the deal between the PIF and the PGA and DP World Tours, is hopeful that Trump and his election ally Musk can break the current deadlock.
“We’ll see,” said the 35-year-old world number three. “He might be able to. He’s got Elon Musk, who I think is the smartest man in the world, beside him.
“We might be able to do something if we can get Musk involved, too. I think from the outside looking in, it’s probably a little less complicated than it actually is.
“Trump has a great relationship with Saudi Arabia. He’s got a great relationship with golf. He’s a lover of golf. So, maybe. Who knows?
“But I think as the president of the United States, he’s probably got bigger things to focus on than golf.”
Trump has praised the lucrative LIV tour for its “unlimited money”, and five of its tournaments have been been held at his courses since its inception in June 2022.
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During his victory speech, Trump asked celebrating Republicans to salute US Open champion Bryson DeChambeau, who joined the victorious candidate on stage while wearing a ‘Make America Great Again’ cap.
DeChambeau beat McIlroy at Pinehurst last June to claim the US Open and is the second LIV golfer after Brooks Koepka to land a major following a move to the breakaway setup.
“I do think we should have one tour,” Trump said on former NFL coach Belichick’s podcast. “And they should have the best players in that tour.”
The Sun reported last weekend that a $1bn (£780m) unification deal has been agreed with Saudi Arabia taking an 11% stake in the PGA Tour, while PIF governor Yasir Al Rumayyan, who has played golf with Trump, would become tour chairman.
Unnamed industry sources subsequently quoted in the US media say the report was “premature” citing “the major issue of navigating antitrust concerns in the United States”.
McIlroy, a member of the PGA Tour’s ‘transaction committee’, is expecting to be briefed by tour commissioner Jay Monahan before Thursday’s return to playing action after a four week break from competition.
“I know Jay was in Saudi Arabia last week at the FII (Future Investment Initiative Institute) and was having some meetings,” the four times major champion said.
“I know he’s briefing the transaction committee [on Wednesday]. So maybe some news comes out of that.”
McIlroy is preparing for this week’s HSBC Abu Dhabi Championship. Victory would hand the Northern Ireland player the Race to Dubai title for the third year in a row with one tournament to spare.
To that end, while many observers have been anxiously awaiting news of swing states, McIlroy has been more preoccupied with the state of his swing.
Before Thursday’s start in the United Arab Emirates, his first tournament since last month’s Alfred Dunhill Championship, he revealed that he has spent the period in a studio working on his backswing.
“I sort of committed after the Dunhill that I wasn’t going to watch my ball flight for three weeks,” McIlroy said.
“So I locked myself indoors in a swing studio for three weeks and just hit balls into a blank screen or net and just focused on my swing and focused on the movement of my swing and focused on movement of my body patterns.”
