Rory McIlroy says he's removed himself from group chat consisting of top PGA Tour players

Rory McIlroy has removed himself from a group chat consisting of top PGA Tour players following a different opinion on the tour's deal with Strategic Sports Group (SSG).

PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan announced earlier this week that the Tour and SSG had reached a $3 billion agreement. Most of the tour players shared optimism about getting new investors, which they believe would strengthen the development of the PGA Tour.

Meanwhile, Monahan has also been in talks to proceed with the negotiation arrangement with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), which is the financial foundation of LIV Golf. Their merger was initially announced last year in June but it kept getting postponed. It was supposed to be finalized at the end of December 2023 but was again postponed.

As the PGA Tour inked a $3 billion contract with SSG, Jordan Spieth believes that there is no need for a deal with PIF as they already have new investors. McIlroy, meanwhile, held a contrasting view and is said to have spoken with Spieth for an hour about the future of golf. In addition, McIlroy left a chat group of PGA Tour players to keep himself "out of the fray."

Speaking about the deal between the PGA and SSG, McIlroy said (via Nuclr Golf):

"I just want to remove myself from the fray a little bit. I talked to him (Spieth) about his comments. And we had a pretty frank discussion. My thing was if I’m the original investor that thought that they were going to get this deal done back in July, and I'm hearing a board member say that, you know, we don't really need them now, how are they going to think about that, what are they gonna feel about that.

"They are still sitting out there with hundreds of billions of dollars, if not trillions, that they're gonna pour it into sport. And I know what Jordan was saying, I absolutely know what he was saying and what he was trying to say. But if I were PIF and I was hearing that coming from here, the day after doing this SSG deal, it wouldn't have made me too happy, I guess?" he added.

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Rory McIlroy starts his 2024 PGA Tour season at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am

After skipping the initial few tournaments on the PGA Tour in January 2024, Rory McIlroy has finally started his new season at this week's AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, the second Signature event of the year. The tournament consists of 80 top-ranked PGA Tour players competing in a four-day tournament to win the winner's share of the purse of $20 million.

After winning the 2024 Dubai Desert Classic last month, McIlroy has been the expert's favourite to win this week but he struggled with his game. He shot two rounds above 70 and settled for a tie in 64th place with a total score of 1-over par.

The tournament is scheduled to have its final on Sunday, February 4.