Rory McIlroy has urged his fellow PGA our stars to ‘get their heads checked’ if they believe they aren’t being paid enough money.
Rory McIlroy has asked his kindred expert golf players who accept they aren’t being adequately paid to ‘have their heads looked at’.
McIlroy offered the remarks in a meeting with Sky Sports’ Jamie Weir in the wake of advancing his perspectives on the designs to rollback the golf ball.
All things considered the choice by the R&A and USGA to restrict how far the golf ball will travel is something worth being thankful for.
It will make the game more entertaining, he said, as he believes it will bring back more skill at the elite level.
McIlroy was also asked about the ludicrous amounts of money involved in men’s professional golf these days.
Since LIV Golf emerged and began attracting players with guaranteed contracts and astronomical prize purses, the PGA Tour has been locked in a no-win financial fight.
The North American circuit reacted by upping their prize purses significantly.
Elsewhere, the player impact programme was unveiled which dishes out even more cash bonuses for what some argue is a nothing more than a Tiger Woods tax, a popularity contest and an effort to prevent future defections.
In this regard McIlroy has benefitted to the tune of $30.5m since 2021. In the most recent PIP results, McIlroy dethroned the 47-year-old, 15-time major champion to the top prize of $15m. True enough, professional male golfers have never had it better.
When Weir questioned McIlroy about whether the top end of the game is now “all about greed,” he replied, “Yeah, I certainly understand that sentiment.”
There’s a lot of interest in the game, and because of that, a lot of money is being invested in it because players realize they can make more money the more players they can get to play the game.
“So, from an economic standpoint it makes sense but as a golfer compared to the eyeballs football brings or in America NFL, MLB, even NHL, we do way better than those athletes relative to the eyeballs we bring into our sport.”
He continued: “An NFL game might average 18-20 million viewers a night when it’s being played regardless of the two teams that are playing.
“Any given week on the PGA Tour in America the average broadcast is somewhere between 2.5-3.5 million. You know, so, we are, whatever that is… a sixth of the size of the viewership of what an NFL game would be but we are getting paid pretty comparatively to those guys.
“As golf players we are punching way over our weight as far as the cash we’re paid. Anybody, anybody, that grumbles we aren’t getting compensated an adequate number of needs to go have their head looked at.”
McIlroy, 34, has been vigorously associated with assisting shape the PGA With visiting’s future in the midst of the fight with LIV. In any case, he has left his strategic place of power on the arrangement board.
It is a choice that previous European Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley accepts won’t hurt him as the Ulsterman heads into 2024 to attempt to break his significant dry season which will enter its tenth year.