Rory McIlroy snapped back at Kevin Kisner over his claim about the real for the Northern Irishman playing in the DP World India Championship – but the latter has now doubled down

Kevin Kisner has refused to back down on his claim that Rory McIlroy only competed in the DP World India Championship for financial benefit, telling the Northern Irishman in a fresh statement, "If it was zero dollars, you're not showing up."

McIlroy, 37, had never competed in India prior to the country's inaugural edition of the event in 2025, but has now made appearances in back-to-back years, finishing tied for 42nd in New Delhi last week.

Prior to the event, the world No. 2 cited India as a vital, rapidly growing market for golf and his genuine interest in expanding the sport's international reach as two reasons for his return in 2026, while also referencing his chances of securing a record-tying eighth Race to Dubai title with a win.

Kisner, however, refused to believe a word of what McIlroy said prior to the tournament, slamming his "dog s--- comments" and suggesting that the two-time reigning Masters champion was only appearing in the DP World India Championship because of the millions of dollars he was getting to show his face.

Following his final round and T42 finish in India on Sunday, McIlroy was told about Kisner's comments, to which he offered an unimpressed yet collected response, stating: "How would he know? Two things can be true at the same time.

"People can get paid to come and play at the tournament, but at the same time do it from a place of genuine interest of trying to bring the sport to another country, a developing country, where the middle class is larger than the whole population of the United States. It's a huge market for golf."

Kisner, however, wasn't buying it and has now doubled down on his initial claims about McIlroy's reasoning for going to India, insisting that, while the media blew his comments out of proportion, he refuses to believe that the golf icon would have made the same decision had he not received such a handsome sum to do so.

"Was it really an evisceration, though?" Kisner asked his co-hosts on the latest episode of the Foreplay Podcast. "I feel like it's more of every other media company in the world taking whatever could be controversial, putting their own little quotations around whatever my rant was, and then clipping it and putting it all over their social programs.

"If you actually listen to the whole rant, it's basically like, 'Yeah, I would go too.' My point was just, you know, Justin Rose, Tommy Fleetwood, and Rory McIlroy don't just suddenly show up in India on the DP World Tour. It just doesn’t happen.

"I mean, Rory doesn't even show up to Harbour Town for 20 million bucks, pretty close to home. There's a reason why these guys are going, and I don't hate them for it. I just think it’s fascinating that nobody wants to be honest with the world, right?

"It's like, yeah, I'm all for you growing the game too, Rory. I think it's great that we get more people in India to play golf. But if it was zero dollars, you're not showing up there. You didn't show up the last 16 years. Why, suddenly, is India great?"

Last year's inaugural edition of the DP World India Championship was co-sanctioned with the Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI) and featured a $4 million prize purse, making it the most lucrative professional golf tournament ever hosted in India at the time.

This year, that prize purse and the winner's share remained the same, and while McIlroy barely got a sniff of it with his T42 finish, earning $21,200, he did receive a substantial payout of financial incentives from the trip, including an alleged $10 million appearance fee.