Rory McIlroy denies rift with Tiger Woods but admits he doesn’t see eye-to-eye on PIF deal

Rory McIlroy admits he does not see eye-to-eye with Tiger Woods over the future of the game but he denies the pair have fallen out over efforts to strike a deal with the Saudi backers of LIV Golf.

The Holywood star, who opened with a four-under 67 to share second place just three shots behind Xander Schauffele in the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow, explained he’s still close to the PGA Tour-PIF negotiations and is now a member of the “transactions committee” that’s trying to do a deal.

He played down opposition to him rejoining the board as more related to governance issues than personal grievances and revealed he’d had a long chat with Woods last week.

Despite reports of a falling out, McIlroy denied his relationship with 15-time major winner Woods was strained given their differences of opinion on what the future of the PGA Tour might look like should the PIF merger go through.

“I would say, I mean, I think friends can have disagreements or not see things – I guess not — not see eye to eye on things but have disagreements on things,” McIlroy said. “I think that’s fine.

“But no, I wouldn’t say – we had a really good talk last Friday for 45 minutes just about a lot of different things.

“No, there’s no strain there. I think we might see the future of golf a little bit differently, but I don’t think that should place any strain on a relationship or on a friendship.”

While there were reports this week that Woods would be the lone player on a five-member subcommittee that will be negotiating with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, McIlroy said both he and Adam Scott were also on that committee.

“I’m on that transaction committee, too,” McIlroy said. “I’ve already had calls with that group; I had a really good hour and a half Zoom with those guys on Sunday; we went through a 150-page doc about the future product model and everything.

“Yeah, I’m not on the board, but I’m in some way involved in that transaction committee. I don’t have a vote so I don’t – you know, I don’t have I guess a meaningful say in what happens in the future.

“But at least I can – I feel like I can be helpful on that committee, and that was sort of a compromise for I guess not getting a board seat.”

He backtracked somewhat on his comments of Wednesday when he said: “There was a subset of people on the board that were maybe uncomfortable with me coming back on for some reason.”

Echoing Jay Monahan’s assertion that it had more to do with red tape, he said last night: “I don’t necessarily think or believe that people didn’t want me involved; it was more just the process of how I could get involved again, right?

“Like the board has went (sic) through this massive eight-month governance review, and what happened with Webb and I and that whole thing, that was outside of the scope of the governance, right?

“So then what does the process look like to try to bring me back in? That was really the sticking point with it all.

“So yeah, look, we tried to get to a compromise where, you know, I stuck my hand up and said, ‘look, I can be helpful if this is what Webb wants to do’. It was really tricky to do that, so I’m involved in the transaction committee and that’s basically to try to get this deal done with PIF.

“I feel like I’ve got good relationships on both sides there, and hopefully, I can bring something to the table and try to, yeah, provide some insight and value and see if we can get this thing done.”

As for his golf, McIlroy was five-under after an eagle at the seventh in his bid for a fourth win at Quail Hollow.

But while he made four bogeys and three birdies in his last ten holes, he was upbeat as he built on his win with Shane Lowry in New Orleans two weeks ago.

“Yeah, I’m hitting the ball really well again, with some of the shots that I hit out there today with the driver, some of the iron shots were much better, I feel like putting’s good,” he said.

“And I felt like things were starting to turn around for me in New Orleans, played a good weekend there.

“I got a really nice couple of feelings in my swing that week and I’ve just sort of tried to ingrain those over the last, whatever that is, 10 days. Yeah, it feels good.

“It was good to play a solid round of golf today. Left a couple out there, I feel, but at the same time I’ve got three more days to try to build on what I’ve done today.”

As Schauffele shot a seven-under 64 to hit the front, McIlroy was tied for second with Sweden’s Alex Noren and Collin Morikawa on what was a disappointing day for Shane Lowry and Seamus Power.

The Offaly man was out of sorts with his irons and signed for a four-over 75 alongside Schauffele that left him tied 64th in the 68-man field.

As for Power, he was four-under for the day heading into the three-hole closing stretch known as The Green Mile.

But in a tournament he needs to win to qualify for next week’s PGA Championship, he played the closing stretch in a disastrous five-over, sandwiching a three-putt bogey at the 17th between double bogey sixes at the 16th and 18th holes en route to a one-over 72 that left him 43rd.

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