Rory McIlroy is sounding the alarm over a troubling consequence of golf's Saudi-funded civil war: the financial arms race triggered by LIV Golf may now be destroying the very events the PGA Tour was trying to save.
The world No. 2 and defending Masters champion argues that the tour's drastic restructuring,slashing field sizes, inflating purses to $20 million for signature events,was necessary to fend off defections when LIV was hemorrhaging talent with nine-figure contracts. But now that Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund has signaled it will stop bankrolling the breakaway circuit, McIlroy sees the real damage: established tournaments losing their identity and prestige because sponsors cannot justify $30 million paydays.
"The old ways of the PGA Tour weren't actually that bad," McIlroy said ahead of the US Open at Shinnecock Hills. He pointed to the Canadian Open as a casualty, citing plans to demote it to the tour's second-tier "Track 2" system,what he bluntly called "a glorified Korn Ferry event."
The two-tier tournament structure McIlroy opposes has already drawn criticism from players who fear it will cleave the schedule into premium and secondary tiers, with major sponsors unwilling to fund traditional events at the new cost levels. McIlroy's concern reflects a broader player anxiety: that the financial concessions the tour made to survive LIV's poaching have created unsustainable expectations that now threaten the calendar itself.
The irony is sharp. When LIV launched in 2022, the PGA Tour moved fast to inoculate itself, restructuring events with smaller fields and dramatically higher purses. It worked to stem the exodus. But with LIV's future in serious doubt, those emergency measures now feel permanent, and sponsors and stakeholders are balking at maintaining inflated budgets for second-tier tournaments.
McIlroy takes the field at Shinnecock Hills on Thursday at 7:52 a.m. alongside Ryder Cup teammates Tommy Fleetwood and Ludvig Ãberg. The trio will compete just 60 miles from Bethpage, where they helped Europe clinch an overseas Ryder Cup victory nine months earlier.
Scottie Scheffler, the world No. 1, begins his bid for a career grand slam with defending champion JJ Spaun and 2025 U.S. Amateur winner Mason Howell. Two-time US Open winner Brooks Koepka, who claimed his second title here in 2018, tees off with Cameron Young and Chris Gotterup.
Author James Rodriguez: "McIlroy is right to worry, but the tour created this monster itself, and walking it back now will be messy."
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