Rory McIlroy bashes LIV Golf while promoting his TGL with Tiger Woods

PGA Tour star Rory McIlroy thinks LIV Golf are "caught in no man's land".

06 Nov 2023

Rory McIlroy bashes LIV Golf while bigging up his TGL with Tiger Woods

Rory McIlroy has told the media LIV Golf has "not innovated enough" and they are "caught in no man's land" while bigging up his new tech-infused golf team league, TGL, alongside Tiger Woods.

McIlroy believes the TGL, which starts on January 9 in the custom-built SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens, will help "broaden the demographic" of the sport.

There will be a total of 24 players in TGL, many of whom are stars of the PGA Tour.

TGL will be coming down hard on slow play, it was confirmed earlier today.

The biggest absentees from the PGA Tour include Jon Rahm, Scottie Scheffler and Viktor Hovland.

Related: All you need to know about TGL

Speaking to the media on November 6, two months before the start of the PGA Tour-backed TGL, and McIlroy discussed the reasons behind TGL and why it is going to be much different to the Saudi-backed LIV Golf League, which started up in 2022.

World No.2 McIlroy will be representing team Boston Common, which also comprises Tyrrell Hatton, Adam Scott and Keegan Bradley.

McIlroy said:

"I think [TGL] is meant to be complimentary [to professional golf], this is not meant to be disrespectful in anyway.

"Whenever Mike [McCarley] brought this idea to Tiger and I, one of the first things we said is 'if we are going to do this we are going to have to partner with the PGA Tour in some way and make this complimentary'.

"That was the first thing. This was not adversarial at all, it was trying to be 'how can we be added into the entire system?'

"We are pretending to be competitive, and it is different type of golf, but it is not the traditional golf you see week-in-week-out.

"I don't want to sit here and talk about LIV but you could make the argument that they haven't innovated enough away from what traditional golf is, or they have innovated too much that they're not traditional golf.

"They are sort of caught in no man's land, whereas this is so far removed from what we know golf to be."

WATCH MCILROY'S COMMENTS HERE

Rory McIlroy was asked why he’s into TGL when he wasn’t into LIV and it’s “golf but louder” mantra.

Rory said LIV is basically in “no man’s land” being too close to traditional golf. pic.twitter.com/5FyBF7HFYl
— Michael Hurley (@michaelFhurley) November 6, 2023

Of attracting a new audience into the world of golf, McIlroy said:

"I think trying to appeal to a wider sports audience. We are trying to sort of bring that court-side feel to a basketball game to golf in some ways. We are trying to let the fans that are at least in the arena get close to the action. Then I would say for the people tuning in at home, having us mic'd, having us being a little more interactive.

"I feel like when you watch a regular PGA Tour event you are a few steps removed from us in terms of you might pick up a couple of conversations here and there, but you are not getting right in on the action, and I think that is really important. I think that speaks more to the traditional golf fan, but what we are trying to really do here is broaden the demographic."

What do you make of the TGL? Will it be a success or something of a damp squib? Is it a bit of a copy of LIV Golf? Share your thoughts and comments over on the GolfMagic social media channels.