Rory McIlroy called LIV Golf’s move to expand its events from 54 to 72 holes “peculiar” as the Saudi-funded circuit shifts closer to traditional golf’s format for 2025.
The format change could help LIV’s ongoing pursuit of Official World Golf Ranking recognition, which it desperately needs since majors use those rankings to determine much of their fields.
“I think it’s a peculiar move,” McIlroy said Wednesday ahead of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. “I don’t think three rounds vs. four rounds is what was holding them back.”
The OWGR previously rejected LIV’s application primarily because of its closed-shop model featuring the same 54 players all season and concerns about team competition potentially compromising individual integrity.
“It certainly puts them more in line with traditional golf tournaments than what we’ve all done,” McIlroy added. “It brings them back into not really being a destructor and sort of is falling more in line with what everyone else does. But if that’s what they felt they needed to do to get the ranking points, I guess that’s what they had to do.”
McIlroy, who’s been one of LIV’s most vocal critics since its inception, questioned how valuable ranking points would actually be for LIV players at this stage.
“Because their strength of fields are going to be so weak because a lot of the guys have fallen already in the rankings because they have not had ranking points for so long, I don’t know if the ranking points are really going to benefit them,” he said. “It will be interesting to see how it plays out.”
The Northern Irishman currently leads the season-long Race to Dubai standings with just two events remaining. He’s making his 12th appearance at the Abu Dhabi tournament where he’s finished in the top three nine times but has never won.
A victory this week would push McIlroy closer to his seventh Race to Dubai title, which would put him just one behind Colin Montgomerie’s record of eight.
