Golf

Rory McIlroy says he will not return to PGA Tour policy board as Webb Simpson stays on

Irish golfer evokes Belfast Agreement when speaking about how golf can make peace in a divided time

Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland is pictured with his golf coach Michael Bannon during the Pro Am event at Quail Hollow. Photograph: Andrew Redington/Getty
Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland is pictured with his golf coach Michael Bannon during the Pro Am event at Quail Hollow. Photograph: Andrew Redington/Getty
Philip Reid
Wed May 08 2024 - 17:15

Rory McIlroy may have – to the surprise of some, among them Shane Lowry – taken to the microphone after the recent Zurich Classic win, with Don’t Stop Believin’ the tune of choice, but the Northern Irishman’s involvement in the game of musical chairs on the PGA Tour’s influential policy board has seen him miss out on regaining a place at the table.

With Webb Simpson, who’d previously indicated he would step aside, opting to remain on the board, and McIlroy – who left last year – initially moving to replace him, but now stepping back to being a player, that space is no longer free.

Still, speaking ahead of the Wells Fargo Championship, a tournament he has won three times in his career, McIlroy – in an indication of how seriously he still takes ongoing negotiations at tour level and on the wider scheme of things in healing wounds between the PGA Tour and LIV – evoked the thoughts and deeds behind the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement of 1998 as evidence that ways to golfing peace can be found.

McIlroy admitted to being “impatient” at the lack of progress, which first prompted a possible return to the board. “I think we’ve got this window of opportunity to get it done, because both sides from a business perspective I wouldn’t say need to get it done, but it makes sense.

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“I sort of liken it to like when Northern Ireland went through the peace process in the ‘90s and the Good Friday Agreement, neither side was happy. Catholics weren’t happy, Protestants weren’t happy, but it brought peace and then you just sort of learn to live with whatever has been negotiated, right?

“That was in 1998 or whatever it was and 20, 25, 30 years ahead, my generation doesn’t know any different. It’s just this is what it’s always been like and we’ve never known anything but peace. That’s sort of how I [see it], my little, I guess, way of trying to think about it and trying to make both sides see that there could be a compromise here.

“Yeah, 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,” said McIlroy, his voice coming from outside of the policy board.

On the motivation that has driven him to uncover a solution to the fractured state of men’s professional golf, McIlroy added: “I would say that golf and the PGA Tour has been so good to me over the years. I just feel like it’s my obligation or duty to try to give back and try to set the next generation of players up like we were set up by the previous generation.

“So Jack, Arnie, the guys that really helped build the PGA Tour and helped it thrive, and Tiger obviously, to get it to where it is today, I think there’s a responsibility with every generation to try to leave the Tour, leave the place that you’re playing in a bit of a better spot than it was before. That’s what it’s about.”

McIlroy is back with a scorecard in hand for the first time since he teamed up with Lowry to win the two-man Zurich Classic tournament, a win – the 25th of his career on the US circuit – that could enable him to kick on in his quest for further Majors, starting with next week’s US PGA Championship at Valhalla, where he won in 2014.

Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry celebrate. Photograph: Chris Graythen/Getty
Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry celebrate. Photograph: Chris Graythen/Getty

Certainly, the feelgood factor of that win in New Orleans and, enjoying a week’s break after that four-week stretch of tournaments, along with returning to Quail Hollow where he has won three career Wells Fargo tournaments, has a renewed sense of contentment with the state of his game.

“I think [the win] freed me up a little bit. It’s a different win, you’re doing it with a partner and you’re only having to hit half the shots on a Sunday to get it done. I think it did a world of good for both of us, for Shane and I, just in terms of setting us up for the rest of the season, giving us some confidence knowing that we could get the job done whenever we needed to.

“I’ve had a pretty slow start to the season, especially over here in the States. I played well in Dubai those first couple weeks. I felt like I needed something like that to get me going and hopefully that’s the case,” said McIlroy.

Lowry – who has played his way into the signature events on the PGA Tour after initially relying on sponsors’ invites – too has more freedom in plotting his upcoming schedule, which includes all three remaining Majors and the Olympics but also the probability of finally making it to the season-ending Tour Championship.

“[The win in New Orleans] is a really good building block for the rest of the summer. I think even though we’re only in just beginning of May, the PGA Tour season, it’s already half over, there’s only half a season left ... these big tournaments come around thick and fast.

“As well as that, I wasn’t going to be in [the field] this week. I had been informed I wasn’t going to be getting an invite, so [the win] got me in this week, it gets me in Memorial, it gets me in Travelers. I can plan my schedule pretty nicely, which for me was actually becoming a bit of a headache, because my family go back home [to Ireland] for 10 weeks and I was going to have to stay over here for a little bit longer than I would have liked and I would have been away from them for longer than I normally like,” said Lowry.

Lowdowns
Wells Fargo Championship

Purse: €18.6 million (€3.35 million to the winner).

Where: Charlotte, North Carolina.

The course: Quail Hollow Golf Club – 7,558 yards, par 71 – was originally designed by George Cobb but has undergone redevelopment over time, initially by Arnold Palmer and most recently by Tom Fazio ahead of the 2017 staging of the US PGA Championship. The closing stretch of holes known as The Green Mile takes in the run from the 16th to the 18th holes. The finishing hole is a 494 yards par 4 that features a creek working its way along the left side of the narrow fairway and up to the green. Since last year’s tournament, all the tees and greens (installed with a new drainage system) have been redone while the bunkers were also overhauled.

The field: Ludvig Åberg’s withdrawal has reduced the limited field to 69 players, with Scottie Scheffler – the world number one and two-time Masters champion – also absent for this latest PGA Tour signature event, which comes a week ahead of the season’s second Major, the US PGA Championship. Rory McIlroy, the world number two, comes in invigorated by a win in the Zurich Classic where he successfully teamed-up with Shane Lowry. McIlroy is a course specialist (a three-time winner) while Max Homa has won twice. Wyndham Clark, the US Open champion, is also defending the title he won last year.

Quirky fact: The moniker of the Green Mile given to the closing stretch of holes was inspired by a local radio sports talkshow when a caller suggested the name, based on the Stephen King novel. The Green Mile is a prison term for the final walk a death-row inmate makes to the execution chamber!

Quote-Unquote: “This course suits longer hitters. I’m not short, but I’m not one of the longer guys. I just feel like I need to not try to be one of the longer hitters this week, you kind of get what I’m saying? A lot of holes out here, you stand on the tee and it makes you want to hit the ball hard off the tee and I feel like if I can get the ball in play and hit the fairways I can be dangerous because my iron play is my strength” – Shane Lowry on his course strategy for Quail Hollow.

Irish in the field: Three of them: Shane Lowry is in a group alongside Wyndham Clark and Xander Schauffele (off the 10th tee, 4.22pm Irish time); Séamus Power is grouped with Si Woo Kim and Patrick Rodgers (off the first tee, 4.44pm Irish time), and Rory McIlroy is in a group with Tom Kim and Max Homa (off the first tee, 5.39pm Irish time).

Betting: No surprise that Rory McIlroy returns to a familiar position heading the market (in the absence of Scottie Scheffler and following his return to winning ways in New Orleans) with the Northern Irishman rated a 13-2 shot ahead of Xander Schauffele who is 9-1. Max Homa is a course specialist and is a 20-1 shot, while Shane Lowry is available at 60-1 and Séamus Power a 125-1 shot.

On TV: Live on Sky Sports Golf (featured groups from 12.30pm, full live coverage from 7pm).

Cognizant Founders Cup

Purse: €2.8 million (€280,000 to the winner)

Where: Clifton, New Jersey, USA

The course: A classic, old-style course – with the hands of AW Tillinghast in its original design and then updated by Robert Trent Jones Snr in the 1950s and more recently Roger Rulewich in 2000 – it is a tournament venue steeped in history, even featuring in some episodes of the television drama series The Sopranos. Past winners of various tournaments at Upper Montclair Country Club include Arnold Palmer on the PGA Tour and Nancy Lopez on the LPGA Tour. The tight, tree-lined course measures 6,656 yards, playing to a par 71 and is noted for its sloping greens.

The field: World number one Nelly Korda – who is on a five-straight winning streak – is the headline act and will again be the player to beat. Korda missed the cut in this event last year, when it was won by Jin Young Ko for the third time in four stagings. Korda is aiming to create history by becoming the first player to win in six consecutive appearances on the LPGA Tour. Among the Major champions competing are Celine Boutier, Ruoning Yin, Brooke Henderson, Hanah Green, Anna Nordqvist and Patty Tavatanakit.

Quirky fact: This tournament honours the 13 founding members of the LPGA Tour ... and this is be the 13th staging of the event. Lucky for someone!

Quote-Unquote: “I really love the test of this golf course. The rough is always a little bit thicker here and it’s quite tight off the tee ... I just like the character of the golf course. It’s just a little bit different” – Australia’s Minjee Lee, winner in 2022 and runner-up last year.

Irish in the field: Stephanie Meadow is in a group with Caroline Masson and Yu Liu (off the 10th, at 5.37pm Irish time); Leona Maguire is grouped with Americans Angel Yin and Alison Lee (off the first, at 6.21pm (Irish time).

Betting: Nelly Korda is a red-hot favourite, priced at 4-1 with Brooke Henderson the next in the market at 16-1. Korda’s form has been sensational but the trickier, narrower confines of this course may negate her length advantage off the tee, so it is worth looking for some each-way value with Minjee Lee at 33-1. Leona Maguire is a 40-1 chance and Stephanie Meadow is on offer at 150-1.

Philip Reid

Philip Reid

Philip Reid is Golf Correspondent of The Irish Times