Rory McIlroy had to convince PGA Tour for release to play in crunch LIV Golf match
'It took a few conversations' Rory McIlroy reveals it took a while for him to convince the PGA Tour to hand him and Scottie Scheffler a release to compete in the Crypto.com Showdown.
Rory McIlroy admits the PGA Tour needed a bit of convincing before finally agreeing to hand releases to himself and Scottie Scheffler to compete in the Crypto.com Showdown vs LIV Golf duo Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau on 17 December.
McIlroy, 35, will join his fellow PGA Tour superstar Scheffler, 28, for a crunch televised 18-hole match against Koepka, 34, and DeChambeau, 31, just before Christmas at Shadow Creek GC in Las Vegas.
Not only will PGA Tour vs LIV Golf bragging rights be up for grabs, but also a giant prize purse made up entirely of cryptocurrency.
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Koepka hinted in a recent interview that we could in fact see a LIV Golf vs PGA Tour Ryder Cup-style match on the cards fairly soon, too.
The five-time major champion has also declared he was wrong about DeChambeau.
Speaking to the media ahead of the inaugural Crypto.com Showdown and McIlroy has revealed how those above at the PGA Tour first needed a bit of convincing before dishing out a pair of releases to two of its leading superstars.
Since the event is not hosted by the PGA Tour, McIlroy and Scheffler had to ask for permission to compete in Las Vegas.
"It took a few conversations to get them to the point where they saw this could be a good thing in the long run," said McIlroy.
News emerged earlier this week that LIV Golf's bankrollers, the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), are set to take a 6% stake in PGA Tour Enterprises. Learn more on that here.
McIlroy, who has been a lead vocal critic of the LIV Golf League ever since its inauguration in 2022, has somewhat changed his tune on all of the best players getting back together again.
"We're trying to bring these players together, and the most opportunities we can get to do that, the better," added McIlroy.
"Does it remind people we're not playing together all the time? Yes. But at least we're making the effort to try to bring the best together more often. If we can start by doing something like this, that's only a good thing."
McIlroy continued: "It was really about us saying we're going to take this into our own hands a little bit, and we're going to do something outside either tour, not to give something back to the fans but to... let them know that we're trying to provide entertainment, that the players want to play together more often."
As for if and when the leading lights of the PGA Tour and LIV Golf will get back playing more frequent golf together again, outside of the majors, McIlroy is unsure on the time scale.
"With the way the whole golf landscape works, I'm still unsure of when we'll get together a little more often," said McIlroy.
"The idea is to bring the best of both tours together in a match that people could get behind and get excited about it."
McIlroy's playing partner for The Showdown in runaway World No.1 Scheffler is equally as excited to get the band back together.
"We'd like to see everybody back together," said Scheffler, who captured his ninth victory in 2024 at Tiger Woods' Hero World Challenge on Sunday.
"There's been so much talk about LIV versus the PGA Tour, all this talk about money. We want to get back to the competition. It's fun to get together to compete."
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