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Mark Schlabach, ESPN Senior Writer
Four-time major championship winner Rory McIlroy is ready to return to the PGA Tour’s policy board, awaiting a vote by the board, which could come as early as this week, sources confirmed to ESPN on Tuesday.
One of the PGA Tour’s strongest supporters in his three-year battle with LIV Golf, McIlroy suddenly resigned as player director on the league’s influential policy board in November.
He is expected to replace the director of the policy board Webb Simpsonwho intends to step down before his two-year term expires in 2025.
McIlroy’s potential return comes at a time when the PGA Tour is trying to negotiate a final deal with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which is sponsoring rival LIV Golf League.
McIlroy, the world’s No. 2 golfer, previously joined the tournament’s policy board in 2022 and was expected to serve through 2024. He cited personal and professional commitments in making the decision. plans to leave the council in November.
With players on both sides arguing over money and the future of the sport, television ratings for PGA Tour events are down about 20% this season. Even the Masters, the first major championship of the season, is not immune to golf fans’ fatigue. Television ratings for the final round at Augusta National Golf Club earlier this month (9.58 million viewers) were the lowest since 2021 (9.45 million).
“I know this isn’t everything, but if you look at the television ratings of the PGA Tour this year, they’re down 20% across the board,” McIlroy said at this year’s Valero Texas Open. month. “That’s one in five. That’s a big number. I would say the number on LIV is not that big in terms of number of followers either.
“I just think with the war and everything that’s been going on over the last few years, people are getting really tired of it and it’s made people lose interest in men’s professional golf, and that’s not is good for everyone.”
McIlroy, 34, will also join the board of directors of PGA Tour Enterprises, the for-profit organization the tour launched with Strategic Sports Group earlier this year. Six other player directors from the league’s policy department — Patrick Cantlay, Peter Malnati, Adam ScottSimpson, Jordan Spieth And tiger forest — are serving simultaneously on both boards. Former travel member Joe Ogilvie has been added as a board liaison.
PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and the directors of the player policy board met with PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan in the Bahamas on March 18.
McIlroy previously met with Al-Rumayyan to discuss the future of men’s professional golf. McIlroy said Al-Rumayyan wants to do “the right thing” with PIF’s investment in golf.
“I think I’ve said this before, I spent time with Yasir and he — the people who represented him at LIV, I think did him a disservice, so [LIV Golf CEO Greg] Norman and those guys,” McIlroy said at the Players Championship in March.
“I see two entities and I think there’s a big difference. I actually think there’s a really big difference between PIF and LIV. I think you have PIF here and LIV here doing their own thing So the closer it is, the better.” We could go to Yasir, PIF and hopefully complete that investment, I think that would be a really good thing.”
The Guardian of London first reported the possibility of McIlroy returning to the PGA Tour policy council.
McIlroy is competing in this week’s Zurich Classic of New Orleans team event with Team Ireland Shane Lowry.
