Rory McIlroy hails Tiger Woods' involvement in PGA Tour discussions on LIV Golf
Rory McIlroy hails Tiger Woods' involvement in PGA Tour discussions on LIV Golf
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Woods flew to Wilmington, Delaware, to attend the assembly of high PGA Tour gamers held earlier than the BMW Championship, regardless of not qualifying for this week's second FedEx Cup playoff occasion.
"It is impactful," McIlroy, a four-time main winner, mentioned. "I feel it exhibits how a lot he cares in regards to the Tour. I feel it exhibits how a lot he cares in regards to the gamers which might be coming by and are going to be the subsequent era."
Woods returned to motion on the Masters in April after a 17-month absence following a automobile crash in February 2021 by which he sustained severe leg accidents.
Though McIlroy acknowledged the PGA Tour was "transferring into a unique period" as Woods' profession wanes, he mentioned that the legendary American remains to be one of the vital influential figures in golf.
"He's the hero that we have all appeared as much as and his voice carries additional than anybody else's within the recreation of golf. His position is navigating us to a spot the place all of us suppose we must be."
Many high-profile gamers have left the PGA Tour for LIV Golf -- together with main winners Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka -- enticed by the $250million in complete prize cash and an try and reform the PGA Tour.
They've confronted criticism from fellow gamers for abandoning golf's traditions and accepting cash from a rustic which has been condemned by human rights teams.
"I disagree with it [the players' decision to join LIV Golf]," Woods mentioned in July earlier than the one hundred and fiftieth Open Championship held in St. Andrews. "I feel that what they've carried out is that they've turned their again on what has allowed them to get to this place."
In response to the existential menace of LIV Golf, the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour -- previously the European Tour -- have suspended anybody who has joined the breakaway sequence, although thus far the majors have allowed all golfers who qualify to proceed taking part in in these occasions.
Earlier this month, a US federal decide dominated in favor of the PGA Tour, denying three LIV Golf gamers -- Talor Gooch, Hudson Swafford and Matt Jones -- a short lived restraining order permitting them to play within the FedEx Cup playoffs.
'A productive assembly'
Former world No. 1 Justin Thomas additionally paid tribute to Woods' position within the "productive" assembly, which reportedly lasted for three-and-a-half hours.
"It is big. If somebody like [Woods] is obsessed with it, no offense to all of us, that is actually all that issues," Thomas mentioned in his press convention earlier than the BMW Championship.
"If he is not behind one thing then it is most likely not a good suggestion by way of the betterment of the sport, but it surely's simply not going to work."
Each Thomas and McIlroy had been reluctant to reveal the main points of the gamers' assembly however urged that an understanding had been reached.
"All the highest gamers are in settlement, in alignment about the place we must always go going ahead," McIlroy mentioned. "And that was superior.
"We have to get the highest guys collectively extra usually than we do ... I am speaking about all in the identical tournaments, all in the identical weeks."
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