Lee Westwood jabs back at Rory McIlroy over LIV comments

LIV surprised the golf world on Tuesday by announcing a big change to tournament formats beginning in 2026. What hasn’t changed is the iciness between some of the players competing on rival tours.

On Wednesday, Rory McIlroy called LIV’s move to expand to 72-hole events “peculiar” and wondered if it would even help the Saudi-backed league achieve its goal of gaining Official World Golf Ranking status. And on Thursday, one of McIlroy’s former Ryder Cup teammates jabbed back.

Thanks to our friends at Bunkered for highlighting Lee Westwood’s remarks on the issue. The former World No. 1 joined the talkSPORT Breakfast Show to talk about LIV’s format changes, and when questioned about Rory’s reaction, he gave a very candid response.

“I don’t know. I don’t pay too much attention to what Rory says,” Westwood said. “He’ll change his mind for next week.”

Ouch.

“I think [OWGR points] is one of the angles behind it,” Westwood added. “I think there were a few different things. Some of the guys focused their whole season around the major championships and playing 54 holes was putting them at a bit of a disadvantage.

“I think they wanted to play 72 holes – that represented more the major championship format. But world rankings is one of the things on LIV’s mind. I don’t know whether it’s in the criteria or not because there’s 54-hole tournaments that got world ranking points before.

“But I think the boxes that you need to tick with the world rankings, 72 holes probably helps that.”