Rory McIlroy says he'd rather retire than play for LIV Golf

Rory McIlroy remains dead set on never representing LIV Golf.

"If LIV Golf was the last place to play golf on Earth, I would retire. That's how I feel about it," the four-time major winner said following the first round of the Scottish Open on Thursday, per ESPN's Mark Schlabach. "I'd play the majors, but I'd be pretty comfortable."

McIlroy's latest comments come as the possibility of the PGA Tour and DP World Tour joining forces remains up in the air.

Schlabach's report noted that Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) advisers introduced the idea of McIlroy and Tiger Woods owning teams in the LIV Golf League as part of a slideshow to PGA Tour policy board chairman Ed Herlihy and independent director Jimmy Dunne, two days after they met with PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan in late April. 

The slideshow was included in the records released by the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which held a hearing on the possible alliance on Tuesday, according to the report.

Per Schlabach, a PGA Tour official said Tuesday that the tour "quickly rejected" the proposal of McIlroy and Woods joining LIV Golf. The ESPN report further noted that records included emails that "suggested that McIlroy met with Al-Rumayyan in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in November." During the Canadian Open in June, the third-ranked player in the world said he previously played gold with the PIF governor at a pro-am in Dubai.

The Scottish Open runs through Sunday. The next event on the LIV Golf calendar is the Invitational Greenbrier, scheduled for Aug. 4-6.