It will come as no comfort to the many LIV golfers blindsided by their financial collapse that Rory McIlroy has revealed he knew an implosion was on the cards as far back as March.
The world No 2 has so far resisted any gloating about the Saudi withdrawal from the breakaway league, but nor has McIlroy lost any sleep over LIV’s uncertain future.
The question of what comes next for that cohort will be aired frequently this week, with the game’s elite convened here in Philadelphia for the PGA Championship. No fewer than 11 of the rebels, including Bryson DeChambeau, will tee up at Aronimink Golf Club for the season’s second major and McIlroy appears well placed to say ‘I told you so’.
He effectively did just that in his opening media session on Tuesday morning by disclosing the Saudi exit strategy was known to him long before the Public Investment Fund’s confirmation on April 30. While the Saudi exit was accurately forecasted a fortnight earlier, McIlroy’s timeline suggests he received a tip-off prior to his second victory at the Masters.
He said: ‘I feel like a lot of us knew before the players did that this was going to happen. Like, I was hearing about this back in March, April time.
Rory McIlroy has revealed he knew a LIV Golf implosion was on the cards as far back as March
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‘One of my best friends, Ricky (McCormick), caddies for Tom McKibbin, who’s over there, and I would talk to him all the time about what was going on. I was saying to Ricky, even before Mexico (the LIV event that started on April 16), “Have you guys heard any of this stuff?” He was like, “No, everything seems okay over here”. It just feels like the rug was pulled from under their feet and everyone was sort of blindsided by it.
‘But again, that’s the risk that those guys chose to take. As I said, it leaves a lot of uncertainty in the air right now.’
Daily Mail Sport previously reported one measure under consideration by LIV is a cut to their 14-tournament schedule next season, when they will no longer have the Saudis underwriting their $30million prize pots. Sources have since indicated those cash pools could shrink down to as little as $10m for certain tournaments in the event that LIV finds sufficient funding to survive into a new season. McIlroy for one offered a bleak prognosis.
He said: ‘I’m not privy to the deals they have. I guess from what I read they’ve got some sponsorship revenue but I don’t know how long that those commitments are. If they do somehow get a schedule together for next year, it seems like it’s going to look drastically different to what it’s looked like over the last four years.’
By contrast to LIV, McIlroy is facing no great introspection around his golf. Since winning his second green jacket he has made a cameo in the Devil Wears Prada sequel and dined at the White House, with the admission that he has been far more comfortable in his own skin than after his first Masters win.
A tie for 19th at the Truist Championship over the weekend was a modest indicator of form, as was a recurrence of some wonky driving from the tee, but there has been no recurrence of the motivation issues that followed his 2025 breakthrough at Augusta.
The six-time major champion said: ‘I think I came into this tournament last year a little bit sort of uncertain of what my future was. I still hadn’t really reset goals or found the motivation to keep going forward for the rest of my career. It probably took me a good few months to get to that point. Coming into this tournament feels a lot different.’
