Live

Highlights on Off The Ball

10:00 AM-01:00 PM

Highlights on Off The Ball
Advertisement
Golf

"I'm out" | Rory McIlroy comes out against the Premier League Golf Tour

The prospect of a Premier League style golf tour to rival the US PGA and European Tours looks to ...



Golf

"I'm out" | Rory McIlroy comes out against the Premier League Golf Tour

The prospect of a Premier League style golf tour to rival the US PGA and European Tours looks to be over after world number one Rory McIlroy rejected the idea. 

McIlroy was speaking ahead of this week's WGC Mexico Championship, which starts on Thursday.

An idea has been generating for an elite worldwide tour with larger purses and limited fields.

Tiger Woods has been approached about it, but McIlroy has backed the status quo: 

"The more I've thought about it, the more I don't like it. Some guys this week made the choice not to come to Mexico. If you go and play this other golf league, you are not going to have that choice.

"I've never been one for being told what to do. For me, I'm out, My position is, I'm against it until there may come a day that I can't be against it. At this point, I don't like what they're proposing."

"Money is cheap. Money is the easy part. It shouldn't be the driving factor. For some people it is, we're professional golfers and we're out here playing golf to make a living, but at the end of the day I value my freedom and my autonomy over everything else."

McIlroy believes there is support among players for the new venture, but he is sceptical Woods will sign up to the new tour: 

"He's 44, he's got two young kids. He's openly said last week that he wants to play 12 times a year. This league is proposing 18, so he's not going to do it."

"As I said right now, people are looking at it, purely from a monetary standpoint. I would like to be on the right side of history with this one, just sort of as Arnold Palmer was with the whole Greg Norman thing in the 1990's. I value a lot of other things over money, and that is my sort of stance on it at this point.

That Rory McIlroy would be so strongly opposed to this world tour is a major blow to any chances of it generating a head of steam.

Download the brand new OffTheBall App in the Play Store & App Store right now! We've got you covered!

Subscribe to OffTheBall's YouTube channel for more videos, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for the latest sporting news and content.