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Few if any players on the PGA Tour have been as critical of LIV Golf and its players as Rory McIlroy.
McIlroy has criticized the new Saudi-backed league since its inception and took dead aim at players chasing a check to leave the PGA Tour.
“Obviously money is a deciding factor in a lot of things in this world, but if it’s purely for money it never seems to go the way you want it to,” McIlroy said about LIV Golf a year ago. “It’s not something that I want to participate in. I certainly understand the guys that have went. I understand what their goals and ambitions are in their life. I’m not, certainly not knocking anyone for going. It’s their life, it’s their decision, they can live the way they want to.”
McIlroy has also since had feuds with LIV player Patrick Reed and LIV president Greg Norman.
But perhaps LIV’s biggest star, reigning PGA champ Brooks Koepka, appears to be on his good side.
Koepka, a now five-time major champion, was seen as one of if not the biggest acquisition by LIV. He’s now back to playing his best golf after a runner up finish at The Masters and a PGA Championship victory.
But as of now, he’s not eligible to play in the 2023 Ryder Cup due to rules barring LIV players.
McIlroy doesn’t agree with those rules.
“I certainly think Brooks deserves to be on the United States team,” McIlroy said prior of The Memorial Tournament per Ryan Young of Yahoo Sports. “I think with how he’s played, I mean, he’s second in the U.S. standings, only played two counting events. I don’t know if there’s anyone else on the, you know, on the LIV roster that would make the team on merit and how they’re playing. But Brooks is definitely a guy that I think deserves to be on the U.S. team.”
Though he does thing LIV players should remain barred from the European side of things.
“But I have different feelings about the European team and the other side and sort of how that has all transpired and, yeah, I don’t think any of those guys should be a part of the European team.”
McIlroy and Koepka seem like unlikely allies. But at least on one topic, they appear united.