When it comes to pre-tournament press conferences, many can sometimes feel repetitive. Some players simply have more to say than others, or there aren’t as many interesting topics or questions for players to opine on.
But at the Abu Dhabi Aldar Championship on Wednesday, Rory McIlroy’s time with the media was one many had circled.
Speaking for the first time since the latest batch of LIV news dropped, McIlroy, one of the game’s most outspoken and thoughtful figures, riffed on golf’s “false economy” era, LIV’s desire to turn professional golf into an “arms race” and more.
One interesting topic he covered included the rule that made McIlroy decide to keep his DP World Tour membership years ago. McIlroy said he considered leaving the DP World Tour because he was spread too thin and wanted a condensed schedule. (He’s one of a handful of players who have dual membership on both the PGA Tour and DP World Tour, where a certain set of criteria, including number of starts, has to be met.)
But in short, McIlroy wants to be a Ryder Cup captain. So he changed his mind.
Sergio Garcia, who recently announced he’s leaving LIV and will join the DP World Tour next season, said he wanted to be a part of the Ryder Cup again. He was one of several European Ryder Cup mainstays who bolted for LIV — along with Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter, Henrik Stenson and others — and although those defectors could still be on the Ryder Cup team, a rule was in place where they were no longer allowed to be captains or vice captains. (Stenson was stripped of his captaincy for 2023.)
“I nearly fell afoul of that rule,” McIlroy said Wednesday, when asked if he agreed with the rule. “I was going to give my DP World Tour membership up in 2019, and I had a chat with [DP World Tour CEO] Keith Pelley at the time, and said, ‘Look, you know, based in America, I want to focus over there for a bit.’ And Keith said to me, ‘Totally fine, but you do know if you give up your membership or you resign your membership, you can’t be a captain or vice captain of the Ryder Cup in the future.’ And I was like, ‘Well, I’m not going to do that then.’
“So like I nearly made that choice and having that chat with Keith Pelley and knowing rules, I was like, well, of course I want to be a Ryder Cup captain one day. There was no decision to be made.”
The emergence of LIV not only changed the golf landscape, but it also threw a wrench into what seemed like a natural progression of future European Ryder Cup captains. Stenson was supposed to be the captain in 2023 before Luke Donald stepped in, and it was long believed players like Westwood, Poulter and others would have their turn as well. They still might, but the path isn’t as clear as it was years ago.
“Everyone knows that rule,” McIlroy said, “and everyone knows that if you abdicate your membership, that’s the consequence.”
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