Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler see a way back for LIV golfers, but don't expect it to be easy

ST. LOUIS — Should the LIV Golf League be unable to continue beyond this week’s season finale in Indianapolis, Rory McIlroy, who in response to LIV’s launch in 2022 was the most vehement defender of the PGA Tour, won’t harbor any sense of personal satisfaction from the tour fending off the $6 billion threat to its turf.

But in the next breath he couldn’t stifle the urge to make the case yet again for the tour’s strength—and its financial competency compared to LIV and its sweetheart financial backer, the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia. It's unclear what’s in store next for LIV, though its CEO, Scott O'Neil assumed a hopeful posture during a press conference Wednesday in Indiana.

“I don't take any personal satisfaction of people losing jobs. That doesn't seem right,” McIlroy said during a press conference Wednesday prior to the BMW Championship at Bellerive Country Club. “I've always felt like this [the PGA Tour] is the best place to play professional golf. And I'm pretty sure if the PGA Tour were handed $6 billion it would have done a better job with it.”

Oof. That’s spiking the football, to borrow from another sport. That had to feel somewhat satisfying.

“It's a hard one,” the World No. 2 player continued. “I feel like I've kept my position consistent that LIV has never been a good thing for the game. So, whatever 2.0 looks like, if it even happens, they say they're trying to be more collaborative and all that. But this is the best platform for the top professional golfers in the world.

“Were there some things at the start of LIV that the PGA Tour could have done better? Sure. But I think that the guys that went [to LIV] … you think back to the start with, say, Phil [Mickelson] was unhappy with some stuff. Surely that just warranted a conversation instead of blowing the entire professional game up and doing something else.”

Leaving aside that Mickelson over the years did voice his opinion on matters pertaining to the tour schedule and financial matters, the fact remains that a breakaway tour was created and poached some of the tour’s bigger names, including Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm with lucrative contracts and outsized purses that drastically altered the game’s financial paradigm.

If LIV does cease to be an ongoing concern or if certain of its players seek to rejoin the PGA Tour, the question for CEO Brian Rolapp and his loyal constituents segues to the process of reintegrating those players. The tour offered a buy-in of sorts in January to four players who had won majors in the last five years called the Returning Member Program, and Koepka accepted the deal, paying $5 million. DeChambeau, Rahm and Cam Smith declined the offer.

McIlroy has wavered on whether LIV golfers should be welcomed back without conditions or face stiff penalties before they are reinstated. On Wednesday, he was asked if certain players would bring value to the tour. His response was incendiary.

“I would argue,” he posed in response, “have they brought value to LIV?”

Hmmm.

“Eventually, yeah, maybe. Eventually they will,” he allowed after a follow-up question. “I'm not part of these discussions, but I'm pretty sure they're not going to be welcomed back straight away. If they were offered this returning member program back in February, the one that Brooks took, then maybe. But that has sort of come and gone. And I think it was said at the time that the deal that they might get going forward, if they do decide to come back, isn't going to be as good as the one that Brooks got. So, yeah, I would say it's going to be a tough, tough road back.”

By contrast, Scottie Scheffler, the No. 1 player in the world and the tour’s Player of the Year the last four seasons, seemed a little more accommodating.

“When we talk about the best players, you know, LIV has a few players that are really good,” he said.

A few?

“I think the depth that we have on our tour is a bit unmatched, but I think when you look at the higher levels of LIV Golf there's definitely some players that would provide a lot of value to the tour and guys that I love competing against as well,” added Scheffler, the defending champion of the BMW Championship and coming off an eight-stroke victory in last week’s opening FedEx Cup Playoffs event. “Going forward there obviously has to be, I think, some sort of penalties. What those are, I'll let Rolapp and all those guys figure it out.”

“It's firstly up to what happens on their side of things. Whether there's LIV going on, whether they're playing or not playing,” said Adam Scott, who is a member of the tour’s Policy Board. “I think we have seen there is a pathway for guys. Brooks had an opportunity and Patrick Reed looks like he's going to take his opportunity through the DP World Tour. So I think there will be opportunities to reintegrate, if guys choose to not participate in LIV going forward.”

What that would look like Scott couldn’t say.

“I don't know what defines easy or not easy,” he said of whether or not a pathway would, for example, be more onerous than the current one-year suspension LIV players face and which Reed will have served by the end of the month. “I think it needs to be fair. It's a complicated question to answer. The PGA Tour needs to protect its own membership, but I think the PGA Tour also knows that there needs to be pathways so it will be fair.”