Rory McIlroy provides update on PGA Tour and LIV Golf merger negotiations

Rory McIlroy has revealed Friday’s meeting in New York City between the PGA Tour and Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia (PIF) was ‘very productive’.

The Tour remain in negotiations with PIF, 12 months after it was announced that the two rival sides had reached a framework agreement. It is expected that a finalised deal will bring an end to the fallout between the American-based circuit and their LIV Golf rivals.

Doubt over the proposed deal had been cast in recent months, with talks between the two sides taking longer than expected. In a bid to accelerate talks, the two sides met in New York this week.

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One man who was in attendance was Tiger Woods, while McIlroy was also involved in proceedings via a video call due to his playing commitments at this week’s Memorial Tournament. On the back of the talks on Friday, the four-time major winner’s concentration returned to his efforts on the course for Saturday’s third round at Muirfield Village.

McIlroy failed to find his best on moving day though, as the Northern Irishman carded a frustrating one-over-par 73 to leave him at two-under for the week in a tie for seventh with 18 holes left to play. On the back of his third round, attention quickly turned back to Friday’s negotiations, with the European providing an update to reporters.

“Yeah, very productive, very constructive, very collaborative,” he said. “I think those are probably three words I would use to describe it. Yeah, it was really good. Definitely things are heading in the right direction. A lot of progress was made. I can’t really say much more than that, but it was really positive.”

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McIlroy had previously revealed that those in charge had been meeting three times a week in order to complete the proposed truce. Quizzed on what sort of discussion’s take place in said meetings, he added on Saturday: “In terms of the deal, like the financials and the legals and all that, I think more that was — those three calls a week were more to do with, like, their investment committee and SSG, so that was more — that’s what those calls were.

“But I think last night was more, you know, talking about the future of the game and the vision and that was where I thought there was a lot of progress that was made.” The Northern Irishman also admitted that he spent over four hours in total on the call, with three of those including representatives from PIF.

McIlroy had initially stepped away from the off-course politics after resigning from the PGA Tour policy board last November. He showed an interest in making a return recent weeks, but his reapplication was rejected by Woods and his fellow player directors on the board. Despite this, the four-time major winner has been welcomed back to the negotiation table with PIF.