Rory McIlroy won’t be rejoining the PGA Tour’s policy board after all.
McIlroy said Wednesday ahead of the Wells Fargo Championship in North Carolina that, due to pushback from other player members on the board, he won’t be replacing Webb Simpson on the policy board and the PGA Tour Enterprises board of directors.
McIlroy resigned from his spot on the board in November, but he was going to take over for Simpson — who wanted to step down from his post about a year before his term was going to expire. Simpson will now ride out the rest of his term, which will end next year.
“There’s been a lot of conversations,” McIlroy said Wednesday at Quail Hollow Club. “Sort of reminded me partly why I didn’t [stay on the board]. So yeah, I think it got pretty complicated and pretty messy.
“I think with the way it happened, I think it opened up some old wounds and scar tissue from things that have happened before. I think there was a subset of people on the board that were maybe uncomfortable with me coming back on for some reason.”
McIlroy didn’t say who on the board was uncomfortable. Outside of Simpson, Patrick Cantlay, Peter Malnati, Adam Scott, Jordan Spieth and Tiger Woods are the other player directors.
“I think Webb staying on is a really good thing,” McIlroy said. “I think he’s got a really balanced voice in all of this, and I think he sees the bigger picture, which is great. My fear was if Webb stepped off and it wasn’t me that was going in his place, what could potentially happen? Yeah, I’m really happy that Webb has made that decision to stay on and serve out the rest of his term.”
McIlroy, who had long been the face of the Tour in its fight against LIV Golf, resigned from the Tour’s policy board in November. He cited “personal and professional commitments,” when he resigned, and said later that the responsibilities in the role were taking up much more time than he anticipated. Spieth replaced McIlroy officially a few weeks later.
McIlroy, who enters this week’s tournament at No. 2 in the Official World Golf Rankings, won the Zurich Classic of New Orleans alongside Shane Lowry last month in a playoff. His last solo victory came at the Genesis Scottish Open last season.
Rory McIlroy named to ‘transaction subcommittee’ for LIV Golf negotiations
Though he’s not going to be on the Tour’s policy board, McIlroy was named to the newly-formed “transaction subcommittee” on Thursday afternoon.
McIlroy is joining Woods, Scott, Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, board chairman Joe Gorder, Fenway Sports Group’s John Henry and director liaison Joe Ogilive on the new committee, which will handle the day-to-day negotiations with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. The new committee will report back to the board.
Negotiations between the PIF, which backs LIV Golf, and the Tour are still ongoing even months after their self-imposed deadline passed. McIlroy has met with PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan in the past about the future of the sport, and Monahan and the board met with him in the Bahamas earlier this spring. It’s unknown what progress, if any, McIlroy and the new transaction subcommittee have made on that front.
“I’m not on the board, but I’m in some way involved in that transaction committee,” McIlroy revealed after the first round of the Wells Fargo Championship. “I don’t have a vote so I don’t — you know, I don’t have I guess a meaningful say in what happens in the future, but at least I can — I feel like I can be helpful on that committee, and that was sort of a compromise for I guess not getting a board seat.”
It’s still unclear when such a deal will get finished, if at all, and what it will look like. McIlroy, like countless others in and around the golf world, is growing impatient. While invoking the Good Friday Agreement between Ireland and Northern Ireland, McIlroy said both sides need to compromise and get on with it.
“It’s probably not going to feel great for either side, but if it’s a place where the game of golf starts to thrive again and we can all get back together, then I think that’s ultimately a really good thing,” he said on Wednesday.
