McIlroy declares SGL "dead in the water" and lambasts "naive, selfish, egotistical, ignorant" Mickelson
Rory McIlroy
Rory McIlroy declared the proposed Saudi-backed Super Golf League "dead in the water" last night after Bryson DeChambeau and Dustin Johnson declared their loyalty to the PGA Tour, leaving the entire scheme without any big-name stars.
Both players were understood to have listened closely to Greg Norman and LIV Golf Investments and their promise of millions upfront to play a series of no-cut events worldwide.
But with Phil Mickelson ridiculed for describing the Saudis as "scary motherf***ers" to get involved with while admitting he was using the SGL to leverage the PGA Tour to share media rights with the players, support for the breakaway tour has waned.
DeChambeau was considered a likely poster boy for the Saudi-funded venture. But with another likely lad in Johnson joining the likes of McIlroy, Tiger Woods, Jon Rahm, Collin Morikawa, Justin Thomas, Brooks Koepka and Jordan Spieth in saying no, the Mad Scientists was left alone in the Mickelson camp and quickly abandoned ship.
Delighted to see DeChambeau and Johnson declare their loyalty, McIlroy declared the SGL dead.
"Who's left? Who's left to go?" He asked. "I mean, there's no one. It's dead in the water, in my opinion. I just can't see any reason why anyone would go."
“I thought they were naive, selfish, egotistical, ignorant”
Asked if he would be surprised if a player supported the Saudis now, he was merciless.
"Well, it would be because who else have you got to fill the field? I mean, Greg Norman would have to tee it up to fill the field. Like, I mean seriously? I mean, who else is going to do it? I don't think they could get 48 guys."
McIlroy showed Mickelson no mercy for his comments to Alan Shipnuck for an upcoming "unauthorised" biography.
"I don't want to kick someone while he's down, obviously, but I thought they were naive, selfish, egotistical, ignorant," he said. "Lots of words to describe that interaction he had with Shipnuck. It was just very surprising and disappointing, sad. I'm sure he's sitting at home sort of rethinking his position and where he goes from here."
The climb-downs by Johnson and DeChambeau came within four hours of each other, overshadowing the final round of the Genesis Invitational, which saw Chile's Joaquin Niemann close with a level par 71 to win in wire-to-wire fashion by two strokes on 19-under from Morikawa (65) and Cameron Young (70).
"I feel it is now time to put such speculation to rest," world number six Johnson said in a statement issued by the PGA Tour. "I am fully committed to the PGA Tour. I am grateful for the opportunity to play on the best tour in the world and for all it has provided me and my family."
DeChambeau followed Johnson's lead just four hours later.
"While there has been a lot of speculation surrounding my support for another tour, I want to make it very clear that as long as the best players in the world are playing the PGA Tour, so will I," DeChambeau said.
"As of now, I am focused on getting myself healthy and competing again soon. I appreciate all the support."
McIlroy was the first to say two years ago he didn't like where the money for the breakaway league was coming from and he is not surprised that all ten of the world's top 10, plus 12th-ranked DeChambeau, appear to have killed off the SGL.
"I think with everything that's transpired in the last few days, I don't think it's surprising," he said. "Like I've always reiterated, I feel like this is the best place to play golf if you're an elite professional golfer."
He added: "I was really glad to see DJ and Bryson put out those statements this week. We all want to play against the best players in the world, and they're certainly two of the best players in the world and it's nice to know that they're committed to playing here and committed to making this the best tour in the world."
McIlroy closed with a three-under 68 to tie for 10th on 10-under.
He said later he was please with his week but he showed some frustration with his short iron play at the second hole where he drove up against the fence on the left. chipped out by turning the club over and playing left-handed but then flung his club down the fairway in anger after missing his target with a short iron.
But he also took time out to assess the efforts of LIV Golf Investments and the Saudis to disrupt the PGA Tour and DP World Tour by poaching top players with cash.
Smoke and mirrors
He was highly critical of the way the Saudis went about their business and insisted they had no chance without Woods.
"I knew the way these guys have operated and it's all been smoke and mirrors, and they've created rumours and spread rumours and tried to play one guy off another," he said. "They said one thing to one manager and said a different thing to another manager and just sort of created this chaos and confusion around that group, and everyone's questioning everyone else's motives, so they're just kind of playing everyone off one another. I think it's nice now that we all can sit down and say, look, we're all on the same page here.
"Are there things the Tour could do better, and they're working on, of course, but that's the same in any business, in any sports league around the world, they're all trying to get better just as the PGA TOUR are.
"But that is why the tournament in Saudi happened a couple weeks ago; I thought it was awfully quiet; there were no announcements that were really made, and I think once that happened, everyone was waiting for something, and nothing really came of it."
Believing golf is not so badly broken that it needs to be rebuilt, he added: "I don't think they put the right leadership team in from the start. In all honesty, like the epicentre of the professional world still revolves around Tiger, he is the epicentre, and if they don't have him…
"Like who knows when he's going to play again, but if they don't have his blessing even, it's got no chance. Then roll in Jon Rahm, the best player in the world, Collin Morikawa, No. 2, me who's been up there for a while, everyone else"
Quietly solid
As for his week, Mcllroy insisted he was quite happy despite his club throw.
"Quietly solid," he said. "I shot four rounds under par. I had a nice 67-68 weekend. My game's close, it's close. I certainly didn't do enough to shoot 21 under par this week and keep up with Joaco, but I'm happy with my week.
"I always sort of thought Riv is a place where you shoot four 68s and you're going to be in with a good chance. This year with just them not being able to water the rough and the rough not being up, it just made the course a little bit more benign and you could sort of miss it a little bit more off the tees and get away with it.
"I've never seen the greens this good at Riv and I've never holed as many putts here as I have this week.
"Guys seem to be holing a lot more putts just because they're not soft, there's not heel prints, there's none of that, and they're rolling true."
