In four-time major champion Rory McIlroy's perfect world, the best players in men's professional golf would play on a top-tier international tour with other tours around the world feeding it.
Golfers would have to play well enough to stay on the top tour, and golfers from the lower tours could work their way up there.
“The way I look at it is a little like [the] “The Champions League in football,” McIlroy told reporters on Wednesday, referring to European football's premier club competition. “It's like the best of the best from Europe, and then all the other leagues feed off of it. There are a lot of different tours that are generating interest and a lot of great players, but if you want to create something that has real value to the game of golf , I think it's this high-level circuit and then all the other circuits feed off of it.”
McIlroy was one of the PGA Tour's most enthusiastic supporters during its battle with the LIV Golf League for the best players in the world. He resigned from the PGA Tour board of directors last year.
Now, McIlroy's vision for the future of the sport – as the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund try to finalize a deal to combine their business assets – takes a much bigger picture.
“If this world tour somehow comes to fruition in the next few years, could you imagine bringing the 70 or 80 best golfers in the world to India for a tournament?” McIlroy said as he spoke before defending him at the Dubai Desert Classic. “Believe [it] It would change the game and the perception of it in a country like that. Again, there are many opportunities to globalize it.
“I've been saying this for the past few months, but golf is at an inflection point, and if golf doesn't do it now, I'm afraid it never will and we will have this fractured landscape forever.”
Last week in Dubai, McIlroy told Golf Digest that his dream scenario would involve playing tournaments in untapped markets like Australia, South Africa and Japan, rather than almost all major sporting events being held in the US.
“I think the opportunity here is global,” McIlroy said Wednesday. “Look, there are still massive events in the United States, and I think they have a great history and tradition and they need to be maintained. But there are many opportunities elsewhere.”
McIlroy's comments echoed what outgoing DP World Tour CEO Keith Pelley told reporters in Dubai this week.
“The growth of the game is global,” Pelley said. “I think that's where you have to focus. This is a global game. Every business that is growing now wants to be global. What I would like to see is the game become more unified with a global strategy. I think the PGA Tour is coming to the conclusion that [going] global is the key to growth. “You've heard me say it once or twice.”
What is the biggest obstacle to that happening, according to McIlroy?
“I think there are just different interests,” McIlroy said. “There are a lot of different interests in the game, and I think what we need to do first is align the interests, align the interests of the players, the businesses, the fans and the media, and try to align everyone's interests. And then, “Once you do that, you can move forward. So alignment of interests is the big key to trying to reach that dream scenario.”
