Rory McIlroy outlines how LIV has ‘benefited everyone’ in professional golf

McIlroy believes LIV Golf has helped the PGA Tour in an increasingly crowded market

Rory McIlroy has thanked LIV Golf for helping the PGA Tour to “innovate” after recent changes.

The PGA Tour is pushing ahead with a set of designated and elevated events from 2024 which will have no cuts.

The format drew some criticism, given some similarities with LIV, yet McIlroy, who was edged out by Kurt Kitayama last week at Bay Hill, is bullish about the PGA Tour’s future and believes added competition has helped create a better product.

“The emergence of LIV has benefited everyone that plays professional golf,” McIlroy said ahead of the Players Championship, which starts on Thursday and sees the Northern Irishman play alongside Jon Rahm and Scottie Scheffler.

“I think when you’ve been the biggest golf league in the biggest market in the world for the last 60 years, there’s not a lot of incentive to innovate.

“This has caused a ton of innovation at the PGA Tour and what was quite, I would say, an antiquated system is being revamped to try to mirror where we’re at in the world in the 21st century with the media landscape and the PGA Tour isn’t just competing with LIV Golf or other sports.

“It’s competing with Instagram and TikTok and everything else that’s trying to take eyeballs away from the PGA Tour as a product.”

Commissioner Jay Monahan announced that eight designated events will have limited fields between 70 to 80 players and there will be no cut.

The move is designed to ensure the best players in the world play together more regularly, while also encouraging those on the outside to qualify for the most prestigious events, which will also include record purses.

McIlroy is now competing with Rahm and Scheffler atop the official world golf rankings and the 33-year-old has praised the Spaniard for his ability from a young age.

He added: “Even when Jon Rahm was in college, you could’ve made the argument that he was a top-20 player in the world.”