"You've got the top players in the world are saying no, so that has to tell you something"; Rory McIlroy has again dismissed the proposed Saudi-led Super Golf League but Adam Scott has confirmed he has had talks to join and believes "it is only a positive thing for professional golfers"
Thursday 17 February 2022 13:30, UK
Rory McIlroy highlighted the fact the world's top players have turned down the Super Golf League but Adam Scott has confirmed he is in talks to join the lucrative Saudi-led project.
The 32-year-old Northern Irishman has previously labelled the proposals as a "money grab" and referred to the "not so Super League" ahead of this week's Genesis Invitational at the Riviera Country Club.
While McIlroy has made his position clear, he admits he is interested to see which players might want to join up but believes it is telling the top-ranked players have declined.
"I don't know if I'm curious, but - yeah, look, I guess I'm intrigued who would - certainly for the younger guys, like it just seems a massive risk," he said.
"I can maybe make sense of it for the guys that are getting to the latter stages of their career, for sure. I don't think that's what a rival golf league is really - that's not what they're going to want, is it? They don't want some sort of league that's like a pre-Champions Tour.
"I don't know - I understand the financial part of it for guys that are later on in their career.
"You look at the people that have already said no, (Jon) Rahm, No 1 in the world, Collin Morikawa, myself. Like you've got the top players in the world are saying no, so that has to tell you something."
However, 2013 Masters champion Scott revealed he has had discussions over signing up to the proposed rival tour and argued it is a good thing for professional golfers.
"I think that the schedule they're proposing is very appealing to probably most golfers, I would think, depending what your goals are in golf," the 41-year-old Australian added.
"From that side of things I would consider doing that, for sure, from a lifestyle side of things, yes.
"Yes [I have had discussions with them] but like everyone else, we're sworn to secrecy.
"I think you can argue both sides of lots of things but, at the end of the day, I think my general feeling on this, at the moment, is that it is only a positive thing for professional golfers that there is interest and money coming into the sport.
"It also somewhat forces the PGA Tour to put money into the professional golfers. We're seeing that all around the world too, they've put money into the European Tour, the LIV Golf Investments has put money into the Asian tour so, at the moment, that's good for strengthening the professional game.
"How everything else pans out, I don't know but I think it's good that these things are happening for golf professionals."
The tournament at the Riviera Country Club will see McIlroy's first PGA Tour appearance since October and he says he is after more consistency in 2022.
"I think just more consistency is what I need," the world No 5 said. "I don't have to look that far back, I go back to 2019 and I had, I think I had 19 top-10s in 24 starts or something like that. I think it's just a consistency that I want to sort of get back to that level of consistency.
"I think if you do that and you play to that level week in, week out, you're inevitably going to give yourself chances to win golf tournaments, whether it be regular tour events or majors or anything else. That's what I'm looking to improve on going forward."
With all of the world's top 10 set to play at Riviera, he added: "I think when all the top guys get together on a course like this it is a good barometer and a good measurement to see where your game is.
"You have to do a lot of things well at this golf course and a lot of the same things you have to do well here are the same things you have to do well at major championship set ups.
"I wish we played a lot more courses like this on tour. This is a real treat."
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