Rory McIlroy has criticized Phil Mickelson after the six-time major champion and LIV Golf star claimed he believed the PGA Tour was “trending downward”.
Speaking ahead of the CJ Cup where the Northern Irishman, 33, is hoping to defend his title, he said that “anyone with a logical view” of the game can’t agree with what Mickelson said.
Mickelson, 52, turned heads when he spoke to the media ahead of LIV’s Invitational in Jeddah, where claimed he now believed that he was on the “winning side” of golf’s civil war before adding that ultimately the controversial series will be embraced. “I love the side that I’m on,” he said.
McIlroy clearly doesn’t see it that way and also appeared to take a dim view of the stance of the six-time major champion just like Jon Rahm did.
He said: “Look, again, I’ve spoke about this at length and I think the people that have decided to stay here and play these tournaments, they or we haven’t done anything differently than what we’ve always done, right? We’re playing these events, we’re PGA Tour members, we’re sticking to the system that has traditionally been there.
“The guys that have went over to LIV, they have — they’re the ones that have made the disruption, they’re the ones that have sort of put the golf world in flux right now. I guess for them to be talking the way they are, it’s bold and it’s, you know, I think there’s a ton of propaganda being used and all sorts of stuff.”
McIlroy continued: “I certainly don’t see the PGA Tour trending downward at all. All the talent, most, 95 percent of the talent is here. You’ve got people like Tom Kim coming through who that’s the future of our game.
“I don’t agree with what Phil said last week. I understand why he said it because of the position he is in, but I don’t think anyone that takes a logical view of the game of golf can agree with what he said.”
McIlroy is hoping to become the World No.1 again this weekend. He can dethrone Scottie Scheffler providing he wins and the American doesn’t finish solo second or T-2.
Alternatively, McIlroy would need to finish solo second and need Scheffler to finish worse than solo 34th.
McIlroy is making his season debut in the 2022-2023 PGA Tour season. He is in good form having pipped the aforementioned Scheffler to the FedEx Cup when he won the Tour Championship at East Lake after closing out that tournament with a sublime 66.
McIlroy won the $18m bonus money for that feat.
Article originally appeared on: Golfmagic.com
Keep Talking Rory.. Pretty soon you will ANNOY more player over to LIV..Curious why you need to be the voice of the PGA with all of the remaining top players you have ..Tom Kim, Sepp Straka ..et al..
Why has Rory taken such offense with what Phil has to say? Each side feels they are in a good place then no need to defend anything. Everytime Phil makes a comment the PGA and Rory believe they have to refute it. I like Rory and Phil is one of my all time greats, but there is one point that should be highlighted, Phil has a record that has some very distinguishing wins against some very strong opponents when he was on the PGA tour. Rory went quite a long time without a win until some big stars left to play in the LIV Golf League. The PGA will continue, but you have to admit a lot of top talent is no longer there. Sure, there will come along some very good players but will they give us the thrills of a Jack, Arnold, Dustin, Brooks and yes Phil Mickelson you can ban them from the PGA, not allow them to play in the majors, but their names and accomplishments are still a part of Golf and it’s history. Now you may need to put an asterisk by the winners of the Masters, US Open, the Open and the PGA, the winner is-but he didn’t play against the best.
Hey. Have you noticed how happy Phil looks in all his pictures lately. I bet you if you gave him a mulligan for his decision he would definitely take it. Does Phil even have a top 10 yet????
Let’s see. Asterisk. 48 man field. 3 day event. I do agree that Rory should quit commenting on everything said because the Pga tour is the big dog and the liv is the chiwawa. Spell check.
Phil dosen’t need a top ten, he has $200,000,000.00 in the bank, appearance money, expenses paid. At 51 I believe he is happy with his decision