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Rory McIlroy had a lot of comments before the Players Championship, and golf insider Rex Hoggard didn't appreciate them. Following some of the first-round action at the Players, at which McIlroy has not yet teed off, Hoggard responded.
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He said:
“Everyone caught a stray. It didn’t seem particularly fair.”
McIlroy made a lot of comments about the future of golf, something he's done a lot in the last few years. He was at first a de facto spokesperson for the PGA Tour, but he's now interested in reunification and has made that clear. He has softened on LIV Golf despite saying when the merger was announced that he hoped it would dissolve as a Tour.
He did not spare many entities, and that was something Hoggard took issue with. McIlroy tees off at 1:29 pm EDT today at TPC Sawgrass, so all eyes may be on him to see how he follows his press conference.
McIlroy entered with the second-best odds of winning behind Scottie Scheffler. It would be his second win of 2025, but the media may have extra attention on him if he loses now that Hoggard and others took issue with some of the things he said.
Rory McIlroy remains adamant for global sport of golf at Players Championship
Ahead of the Players Championship, Ryder Cup star Rory McIlroy spoke at length about the state of golf and its future, which is a talking point that so many prominent golfers have had to discuss lately.
Part of that involves the sport getting bigger on a global scale, something LIV Golf has been trying to do and something Rory McIlroy wants to see happen. He said via Yahoo! Sports:
"My thing is for golf to stay where it is and be relevant, it needs to be ... worldwide, it's a year-round calendar."
The Irishman said that golf isn't exclusive to America nor did it even originate in the country. He said golf is "played in a lot of other places in the world", and he wants to see that reflected in pro golf.
McIlroy continued:
"But I think there is an opportunity to have some of the bigger tournaments outside of America. I've always been a worldwide player. I play all around the world. I start my year in the Middle East. I come over here. I go to the UK. After the FedExCup Playoffs, I go back to Europe and play four or five events."
He specifically cited LIV Golf Adelaide, the most popular event on the LIV calendar, as evidence that the world is desperate for high-level golf and that the sport owes it to them to go to those places.
