McGinley warns “it’s a long road back” for Europe’s LIV rebels

Paul McGinley

Paul McGinley echoed Rory McIlroy’s reticence on welcoming LIV rebels back into Europe’s Ryder Cup fold even as the game inches towards reunification.

McIlroy said in San Diego last week he would need to be “convinced” to give players like Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter, Henrik Stenson or other LIV members the chance to captain the team, even in the event of a deal between the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.

“I would have to be convinced,” McIlroy said. “It would take them treating it as Luke Donald's treated it for the last three years. That's what it would take to convince me.”

McGinley, who is a special advisor to European Ryder Cul skipper Luke Donald, did not rule out an entente but explained that a lot of “healing” was required before that could happen after ex-Ryder Cup stars sued their home Tour.

“A lot of things have happened in Europe in the last few years,” the winning 2014 captain told Golf Channel. 

“The European Tour spent a lot of money defending (a court case) against players that felt they had a right to play, even though they were going to play on a different league that was going to compete directly against the European Tour at the time, more so than it was competing against the PGA Tour. 

“We don't have the riches or the money in reserve that the PGA Tour has that could have surmounted those challenges. 

“We had to spend a lot of the members’ money defending ourselves in the case against the players left a really bad taste for a lot of people. 

“But that doesn't mean that things can't be healed and things can't move forward, but we'll have to wait and see how things evolve. 

“There’s talk of a deal imminent. I'm not so sure how quickly that could happen. But, you know, it's a long road back, but it's a road back that the game needs to take.”

With talk of a potential Formula 1 style tour being an attraction for the Strategic Sports Group, which has initially invested $1.5 billion in PGA Tour Enterprises, McGinley believes the days when golfers could operate as independent contractors must be numbered.

Unlike LIV Golf, which has contracted its stars to play every week, the other tours cannot always guarantee sponsors which players will turn up

“It's very hard to have conversations with sponsors to become involved in golf when we don't know who's going to turn up, and that's a real, real challenge,” the Dubliner said. 

“And I think that's been amiss over the last few years, as the PGA Tour has given the players so much in terms of prize funds and SSG money and PIP money that they haven't got a whole lot of return in terms of commitment from the players.

“…What would the NFL be like if four or five teams decided that they could choose when or where they wanted to play?”

As for Europeans Sepp Straka, McIlroy, Thomas Detry and Ludvig Äberg winning four of the last five PGA Tour events, McGinley was not getting carried away ahead of September’s Ryder Cup defence just yet.

“It's a very welcome return to form for many of these European players, and getting over the line, winning on the PGA Tour is not easy,” he said.

“To see so many of them do it is tremendous news for Luke and the European team. But holding that kind of form from now until September is a big, big ask. 

“There are a lot of big tournaments, a lot of a lot of months ahead of us, and the question is, can they hold that form between now and then? 

“But you'd much prefer them to be playing like this than being miles off form, that's for sure.”