Four-Time Major Champ Rory McIlroy Warns LIV Golfers 'Don't Try And Come Back'
Pro golfers that opted into the LIV Golf Invitational Series continue to receive backlash from golfing leagues and fellow competitors.
Rory McIlroy has been unapologetically opposed to the LIV defectors and double-downed on his contentious outlook on Wednesday, claiming that those golfers should choose to move on from the PGA and European Tour and never look back.
Speaking with BBC reporters, McIlroy shared the following:
"I think at this stage, if you go over and play on a different tour, then go over and play on a different tour," he said. "You're sort of basically leaving all your peers behind to go make more money, which is fine. But just go over there. Don't try and come back and play over here again."
"It's the younger guys to me that it's hard to understand because I feel like they're losing a few years of their competitive career for monetary reasons," Rory added. "Again, that's totally fine and justifiable if that's what your goals and ambitions are, but that's just different to what I would do."
Compounding PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan's fine and banning of LIV participants, the DP World Tour rolled out its own punishments for the players, including a ban from the Scottish Open and a fine averaging out to around $100,000 in each case.
After purses amounting to more than $100 million were handed out to staples of the golf game such as Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau and Dustin Johnson to give Greg Norman's new league some merit, McIlroy restated that they those guys should live with their respective decisions, take their money and not try to "have their cake and eat it too."
"This whole having your cake and eating it type thing is what the resentment within the membership," McIlroy commented, via Fox New Digital's Paulina Dedaj.
However, McIlroy, a four-time major champ, has been inconsistent with his critique on LIV — at one point calling the inaugural series a "good thing."
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