Rory McIlroy talks on "disjointed" LIV Golf format after day one at Wentworth

Rory McIlroy described the format of the LIV Golf Tour as "disjointed" following his first-round 68 at the BMW PGA Championship.

Speaking to the media after his round at Wentworth, McIlroy described the golf course as an "escape" from the chaotic world of the Saudi-backed series which absorbs much of everyone's interest and opinion.

The Northern Irishman has already said those who have defected shouldn't be allowed to play at the DP World Tour's flagship event, sharing the opinion of defending BMW PGA champion Billy Horschel.

McIlroy has been heavily involved in strategies adopted by the PGA Tour to improve its product and grow its audience while the threat of LIV Golf progresses. One of these has been to launch Monday Night Golf with Tiger Woods and TMRW sports, starting in January 2024.

LIV Golf, commissioned by Greg Norman, toe the line of "Golf, But Louder" and "Don't Blink," but McIlroy believes the frantic nature of the YouTube broadcasts diminishes the quality of the product.

"I'd say from... from June onwards, the golf course has been an escape for me, especially during that FedEx Cup run because there was so much going on and so many moving parts, trying to get the top players in the world together to figure out where we're going to go from here," McIlroy said.

"If you're abiding by the rules and regulations of the tours, then by all means you can play. But if you've broken rules and regulations... Actions have consequences and they're living the consequences, well actually they're not living the consequences at the minute.

"One of their (LIV Golf) big things is showing a lot of golf shots and when you show a lot of golf shots, you're not showing the shots that are actually important in the tournament.

"There's a rhythm to it. They may figure it out but I think one of their bigs things is 'we show double the amount of shots per hour than traditional broadcasters' or whatever, which is true, but there needs to be context behind the shots and not just show a ton of shots and we don't know where the person is in the tournament.

"The stories behind them (the players) aren't able to be told because the commentator can't really curate a story because everything is so disjointed and people are in different parts of the course."

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As for Thursday's round where he teed it up with Horschel and US Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick, McIlroy carded five birdies and one bogey. His round of 4-under-par is currently four shots behind Tommy Fleetwood's great score of 64.

Despite a mishap on the 8th hole that saw him duff a shot in the deep rough no more than a yard, McIlroy was happy with his first game back since becoming the first player to win three FedEx Cups.

The 33-year-old chased down World No.1 Scottie Scheffler to take home the huge $18 million bonus. It was his third victory of the season adding to trophies at the CJ Cup and the RBC Canadian Open.

"I never want to say golf is easy because it's not. But everything is in a good spot. My misses are not as wild as they have been in the past. I'm thinking my way around the golf course well and then when I do hit good shots, I take advantage of them and make a few birdies," McIlroy added.

"It was good and it was solid. I didn't play fantastically well but I didn't make many mistakes either. For the rest of the week, it's going to be very gettable. It's so soft, it's so receptive. You've got the ball in your hand and you've got preferred lies if you hit the fairway.

"I can see a lot of those scores (low) over the next few days."