Tour changes won’t ‘screw’ bottom half players, says Rory McIlroy

• Golfers lower down the rankings won’t be harmed by the PGA Tour’s efforts.
• Rory McIlroy believes that elevating the value of the circuit as a whole will benefit lesser-known players.
• If he wins at Riviera, McIlroy can reclaim the top ranking in the sport.

Golfers lower down the rankings won’t be harmed by the PGA Tour’s efforts to streamline its biggest tournaments, according to Rory McIlroy.

The tour is concentrating on top-tier “designated events” in an effort to get the best talents together more frequently in response to the rise of the Saudi-backed LIV Golf.

Although no plans have yet been established for how those competitions will change, there have been rumors that they might include smaller fields without a cut.

Involved in those discussions as a PGA Tour board member, McIlroy claims to have noticed other less well-known players expressing worry.

“I’ve had tons of conversations with guys that are worried about what events they’re going to play next year and all that. The one thing I said was, look, no one’s trying to screw the bottom half of the tour here. If anything, we’re trying to lift it up,” McIlroy told reporters ahead of this week’s Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club.

However, the Northern Irishman insisted that it was essential for the elite to participate in such events.

The PGA Tour eventually needs to be constructed around the top players because that’s what would maximize the value of the product, he continued. “The best players should be playing in them,” he said.

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“But that doesn’t mean that there are not great storylines further down that list, which we’re all very cognisant of,” he added.

Rory McIlroy, a four-time major champion, believes that elevating the value of the circuit as a whole will benefit the lesser-known players.

“If you look at the NBA’s trajectory over the last 20 years, they’ve built that league around their best players and their stars, not around the 12th guy on the team,” he said.

“But because they’ve built that league up around the stars, the 12th guy on the team does way better than he used to. So that’s sort of the way I’ve been trying to tell it,” he said.

If he wins at Riviera, McIlroy, who can reclaim the top ranking in the sport, said it had been challenging to mix competing at the highest level with dealing with the split in the sport.

“It was a busy year for me, I had a ton of stuff going on, but I sort of knew going into this year that…there’s still a lot of stuff that needs to be decided.

“For better or for worse, I’m part of that conversation, I’m on the board of the Tour, and I need to be a part of it.

“Would I love to just get back to playing golf at some stage? Absolutely, but hopefully after this year and the schedule’s set for ’24 and beyond and we sort of get everything else in place, hopefully, I will be able to go back and concentrate on the day job a little bit more,” he added.

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