{"id":437606,"date":"2026-01-24T00:18:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T00:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/?p=437606"},"modified":"2026-01-24T00:18:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T00:18:08","slug":"rory-mcilroy-says-he-doesnt-see-reunification-happening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/rory-mcilroy-says-he-doesnt-see-reunification-happening\/","title":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy Says He Doesn’t See Reunification Happening"},"content":{"rendered":"

The idea that the LIV Golf and PGA Tour merger is dead in the water is an idea that has been spreading fast.\u00a0 Last season, there were several opportunities for the two to reach an agreement.\u00a0 Each time negotiations fell apart, including one meeting when the US president was involved.\u00a0 The idea has spread to the players as well, including Rory McIlroy, who believes that the two leagues are just \u201ctoo far apart.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Rory McIlroy On The Two Leagues<\/span><\/h2>\n

In light of Brooks Koepka\u2019s recent return<\/a>, the chances of reunification seem lower and lower.\u00a0 This came to a head for McIlroy during the same interview<\/a> where he called for Rahm and Hatton to pay their fines.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cJust I don\u2019t see a world where the two or three sides or whoever it is will give up enough,\u201d McIlroy said. \u201cLike for reunification to happen, every side is going to feel like they will have lost, where you really want every side to feel like they have won. I think they are just too far apart for that to happen. I think relationships [between tours] are better, but, at the same time, that doesn’t necessarily mean that every organisation will give up in its own best interest.”<\/span><\/p>\n

McIlroy has been a critic of the Saudi-backed league since it made its debut, but has always hoped for reunification.\u00a0 His criticism has been with the league itself rather than the players.\u00a0 Whenever he went against a LIV player in a major, he always kept things civil, just wanting to play a good game.\u00a0 He even praised some LIV players in the past.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Differences Between The Leagues’ Interests<\/span><\/h2>\n

McIlroy\u2019s note about the differences in interests between the two leagues has been ringing true throughout the negotiations.\u00a0 One major issue would have been how much say LIV would have over the league’s post-merger.\u00a0 There\u2019s also how much of a beast LIV Golf would be to manage compared to the PGA Tour.\u00a0 With a couple exception, the regular Tour season is held in North America.\u00a0 Meanwhile, LIV Golf is a world tour that has plenty of events in the States, but will go as far as East Asia for tournament venues.\u00a0 None of this is even getting into the finances of LIV Golf, as that is its own issue.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

McIlroy And The Merger Sentiment<\/span><\/h2>\n

Players like McIlroy have been hoping for reunification for some time now.<\/a>\u00a0 Players like him have also been willing to compromise when it comes to the fines and suspensions in the past.\u00a0 Previously, McIlroy has suggested that he\u2019d be fine with the punishments on LIV players being lifted.\u00a0 Once they make the jump back to the PGA, of course, saying that \u201cthey\u2019ve paid their consequence in terms of reputation and some of the things they\u2019ve lost\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As far as the merger goes, there\u2019s not much hope for it left.\u00a0 The situation has come to the point where players like McIlroy are questioning if it\u2019s even possible anymore.\u00a0 However, with Koepka\u2019s return, a merger may not even be necessary for these players to see each other on the fields again outside of majors.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit:\u00a0 \u00a9 GREG LOVETT\/PALM BEACH POST \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The idea that the LIV Golf and PGA Tour merger is dead in the water is an idea that has been spreading fast.\u00a0 Last season, there were several opportunities for the two to reach an agreement.\u00a0 Each time negotiations fell apart, including one meeting when the US president was involved.\u00a0 The idea has spread to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5429,"featured_media":437607,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15,246,200,19],"tags":[34],"class_list":["post-437606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-golf","category-golf-news","category-liv-golf","category-pga","tag-rory-mcilroy"],"modified_by":"Taylor Craig","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5429"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=437606"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437606\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":437608,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437606\/revisions\/437608"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/437607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}