McIlroy: Players-only meeting to set up tour 'for next 50 years'

Rory McIlroy smiles while answering a question from the press after finishing his round of the FedEx St. Jude Championship Pro-Am at TPC Southwind on Wednesday, August 10, 2022, in Memphis, TN. Chris Day / USA TODAY NETWORK

Rory McIlroy says players-only meeting is to set up PGA Tour 'for next 50 years'

By Chelena Goldman | Last updated 8/24/22

Last week's PGA Tour players-only meeting wasn't about making short-term solutions. According to Rory McIlroy, the ideas coming out of that meeting should mold the PGA for the next half-century.

"We're trying to safeguard the Tour for the next 50 years," the Irishman said in a press conference Wednesday ahead of this weekend's Tour Championship at East Lake Country Club.

Rory McIlroy on last week's player-only meeting: "We're trying to safeguard the Tour for the next 50 years. All of those players in the room bought into the vision that Tiger and I have come up with. It’s not as if we did this as a renegade group."
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McIlroy, along with Tiger Woods, hosted a contingent of well-known PGA pros who made headlines last week to discuss the ongoing feud with the breakaway LIV Golf, which has baited several former PGA players with exorbitant paydays for playing fewer events. Players who have left for the Saudi Arabia-funded league have been suspended by the PGA and some of those players have subsequently tried to sue the Tour.

While most of the ideas floated around at the meeting have not been made public yet, it has already been reported that McIlroy and Woods have sent PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan a proposal to incorporate one-off competitions into the PGA schedule in 2024.

"We've all made a commitment to get together more often to make the product more compelling," McIlroy said on Wednesday, via ESPN. "I don't have a crystal ball, but I think everyone in that room felt this was the best way to move forward."

McIlroy has been one of the PGA's loudest voices speaking out against LIV Golf since before the rogue tour launched earlier this year. From the sound of things, that stance isn't softening any time in the near future.

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