Rory McIlroy stated on Saturday that the future of elite professional golf may have similarities to the Genesis Invitational, but with some minor adjustments. Given the current lack of excitement at Riviera, this may not be very encouraging news for golf enthusiasts.
Nevertheless, despite notable absences from top players like Tiger Woods, Jordan Spieth, and Justin Thomas at this prestigious tournament, the leaderboard is exceptionally strong this weekend on the PGA Tour. It is anticipated that close friends Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele will be competing in the final round on Sunday, while Will Zalatoris’ impressive comeback is perfectly timed.
Alongside them on the leaderboard are major champions Jason Day and Hideki Matsuyama, as well as former Ryder Cup participant Harris English.
There has been an abundance of exaggerated responses on social media regarding the recent lack of star players on tour. McIlroy appears unfazed by this issue.
“I think for these really big events and the ones that carry a lot of meaning and history—Riviera, Memorial, Bay Hill, those sort of events—yeah, I think this week’s worked pretty well,” said McIlroy. “It would be great to have a couple extra guys still playing over the weekend, but overall I think it’s worked pretty well so far.”
Of course, that doesn’t mean the current model couldn’t use some tweaking. McIlroy says he doesn’t know how long these signature events will run for, but the future of golf is still heading in a very signature event-y direction. And a more global one, too.
“I think it’s all pie in the sky stuff,” he said. “I think there has to be a component of the southern hemisphere, Australia, South Africa. There obviously has to be a component of the far east, whether that be Korea, Japan, China. Obviously the Middle East as well. We’ve been going to the Middle East for a long time, but obviously Dubai, Saudi, and then sort of working our way from east to west and back into the United States for the sort of spring, summertime.
“I don’t think it will look too dissimilar to what it is right now, but maybe the front end of the year and the back end of the year might look a little different. I don’t think we need to blow everything up, but there definitely needs to be some tweaks, I think.”
One tweak would be a few more players. Eighty is the number McIlroy landed on (this week featured a 70-man field with a 36-hole cut). It would be one tour for the top players in the world, with all the others acting as feeder tours.
“McIlroy compared it to the Champions League in European football, stating that it stands out above other leagues and the best players compete against each other. LIV Golf’s role in this situation was not discussed.
McIlroy understands that aligning everyone’s interests remains a difficult challenge.
He mentioned that everyone has their own preferences in this game, which is a result of the current divided environment.