Rory McIlroy has explained why he believes Jack Nicklaus would have loved for there to have been a LIV Golf around during his career, as he reflected on the impact the league has had on the game over the last five years.

There is more than a question mark hanging over what is next for LIV Golf. The league filed for bankruptcy in September. And while BC Partners are hoping to take the venture forward in 2027, they have already seen a large number of players walk away.

In particular, Jon Rahm‘s decision to leave LIV was hugely significant. The Spaniard moving to LIV in December appeared to confirm that the league was here to stay. So it was telling that he has chosen to walk away despite being owed a reported $100 million.

Rory McIlroy reflects on the legacy LIV Golf will leave behind

For Rory McIlroy, LIV’s downfall will feel like vindication. The Northern Irishman was the most high-profile critic of the league throughout its existence. And while his stance did soften somewhat as time went on, he has claimed ahead of the Abu Dhabi Aldar Championship that LIV was not good for the game overall.

“I think we’ll look back on it as a very strange time. Yeah, it gave players a lot of leverage over the tours, and I don’t necessarily think that’s a good thing for the overall health of the professional game,” he said.

“I think there has to be a balance there. There has to be a bit of give and take. You know, I’ve said this from the start, like there’s never been a better time to be a professional golfer. You know, talk to Jack Nicklaus or any of these older guys, they would have loved LIV to come around in their day, they would have made more money, and we are all making more money because of it.

“But I do think there has to be a bit of a reset. I’ve talked about this. They created a false economy within men’s professional golf, and I think that there is going to be a bit of a reset here, just for things to be a little bit more sustainable. You know, there’s not as much of an arms race as there was maybe a couple of years ago, and some players will argue that that’s not good for players, but I think that’s very short-term thinking.

“If you want sustainable tours, and we want these tours around in 50 years’ time, there has to be sustainable business practices in place to make sure they are around in 50 years’ time.”

Guy Kinnings hit out at LIV Golf for apparently trying to kill off the DP World Tour as he explained why anyone who remains with LIV 2.0 will not be able to take up membership on the European circuit next year.

And McIlroy has emphatically backed the DP World Tour chief executive’s comments.

“I agree with everything that Guy said. They took players; they took sponsors; they turned professional golf into an arms race. They were going around Augusta saying they wanted to destroy The European Tour. Yeah, I agree with everything,” he said.

“I think people that don’t agree are probably very shortsighted. Look, there was some of the money that they used the right way, created the International Series on The Asian Tour, great for a couple years, but where did that leave the Asian Tour? They left them high and dry. Asian Tour came back into the fold. Did a partnership with the PGA Tour and The European Tour. Again, this was always going to be the case. It was always going to be good for a few years until something like this happened, or they realised they weren’t going to get any return on investment, or they were going to leave the golf space and go invest in something else and invest in something that would actually make them money.

“I think for long-term sustainability for men’s professional golf, I think we are in a much better spot.”

How Rory McIlroy nearly ruled himself out of ever being Ryder Cup captain

Interestingly, Sergio Garcia spoke about his desire to get back into the Ryder Cup fold after announcing his decision to leave LIV Golf.

There is a problem facing the likes of Garcia and Ian Poulter, however, with the DP World Tour introducing a rule in 2017 that banned anyone who gave up membership from being a Ryder Cup captain or vice-captain in the future.

It turns out that McIlroy nearly ruled himself out of a future leadership role in the event just a few years before LIV emerged onto the scene.

“I nearly fell afoul of that rule. I was going to give my DP World Tour membership up in 2019, and I had a chat with Keith Pelley at the time, and said, ‘Look, you know, based in America. I want to focus over there for a bit’,” he said.

“And Keith said to me, ‘Totally fine but you do know if you give up your membership or you resign your membership, you can’t be a captain or vice-captain of the Ryder Cup in the future’.

“And I was like, ‘Well, I’m not going to do that then’.

“So I nearly made that choice and having that chat with Keith Pelley and knowing rules, I was like, well, of course I want to be a Ryder Cup Captain one day. There was no decision to be made.

“So I’ve had that, I guess, thought in my mind at one point as well, and it wasn’t even about LIV. It was just about feeling like maybe I was spread too thin and trying to play here, there and everywhere. But everyone knows that rule, and everyone knows that if you abdicate your membership, that’s the consequence.”

In some ways, it was a harsh rule to bring in. Had McIlroy given up his DP World Tour membership for a year or two in 2019, it would have surely been unfair to deny him the chance to ever be Ryder Cup captain.

However, LIV did a lot more damage to the DP World Tour, so those who jumped ship will likely get very little sympathy for the fact that they will never get to be Ryder Cup captain as things stand.