Rory McIlroy won’t be joining PGA Tour board after all, feels unwanted

Rory McIlroy looking dejected during the final round of the 2023 Horizon Irish Open.

Rory McIlroy offered to lend a helping hand and return to the PGA Tour Policy Board after he resigned last fall.

But members of the board did not want the Northern Irishman’s input.

“It got pretty complicated and messy, I think, with the way it happened. I think it opened up some old wounds and scar tissue from things that have happened before,” McIlroy said ahead of the Wells Fargo Championship, a tournament he has won three times before.

“There was a subset of people on the board who were maybe uncomfortable with me coming back on for some reason. Yeah, I think the best course of action is if there are some people on there who aren’t comfortable with me coming back on, then I think Webb [Simpson] just stays on and sees out his term, and I think he’s gotten to a place where he’s comfortable with doing that, and I just sort of keep doing what I’m doing.”

McIlroy did not mention anyone by name, but the subset of people on the board most likely is in reference to Patrick Cantlay. Those two have never seen eye-to-eye.

“I wouldn’t say it was rejected,” McIlroy added.

“It was a complicated process to get through to put me back on there. So that’s all fine, no hard feelings, and we’ll all move on.”

McIlroy wanted to return to the board to help speed up negotiations between the PGA Tour and the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), LIV Golf’s beneficiary. The PIF and the tour struck a framework agreement in June 2023 and set a deadline for Dec. 31, 2023, to strike a formal deal. All involved hoped that would resolve golf’s great schism.

But a deal remains far apart, and men’s professional golf remains divided, leaving McIlroy unsatisfied.

“I’m impatient because I think we’ve got this window of opportunity to get it done,” McIlroy added.

“I liken it to when Northern Ireland went through the peace process in the ‘90s and the Good Friday Agreement; neither side was happy. Catholics weren’t happy, and Protestants weren’t happy, but it brought peace, and then you just sort of learn to live with whatever has been negotiated, right?

Rory McIlroy and his golf coach, Michael Bannon, during the Pro-Am ahead of the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship.

“That was in 1998, or whatever it was; my generation doesn’t know any different. It’s just what it’s always been like, and we’ve never known anything but peace [since]. That’s sort of how I—it’s my little way of trying to think about it and trying to make both sides see that there could be a compromise here.”

McIlroy wants to create a world tour in which the top 70 to 80 players traverse the globe, competing in marquee events. He also envisions the tour creating more opportunities like it has with the Genesis Scottish Open. This co-sanctioned event brings the top players from the PGA and DP World Tours to Scotland the week before The Open Championship.

Perhaps the same can be done with the Irish Open, French Open, Italian Open, Australian Open, or other events around the world.

But McIlroy alluded to other members of the board taking issue with this idea.

“It could be if we go to more of a global schedule, do the American players that are used to playing all their golf in America want to travel outside of the States 12 times a year to play tournament golf, you know? That’s a consideration,” McIlroy said.

I just feel like it’s my obligation or duty to give back and help set the next generation of players up… I think there’s a responsibility with every generation to try to leave the Tour, leave the place that you’re playing in a bit of a better spot than it was before. That’s what it’s about.”

Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.