Over $7 billion, “so we are told,” and one stated aim: “destroy the DP World Tour.” Rory McIlroy says he heard the same goal spoken at Augusta. The six-time major winner says LIV Golf people were openly talking about wrecking the European circuit, and he is backing the tour’s boss on it.
What McIlroy said in the LIV vs DP World Tour fight
Speaking Wednesday ahead of the Abu Dhabi Championship, McIlroy backed DP World Tour CEO Guy Kinnings. “I agree with everything that Guy said,” McIlroy told reporters.
“They took players; they took sponsors; they turned professional golf into an arms race,” McIlroy said. “They were going around Augusta saying they wanted to destroy The European Tour.”
He did not name who said it. Irish Golfer Magazine reports the comments came just days before Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund pulled its funding.
The $7 billion question behind the LIV Golf dispute
Kinnings made the original charge in an interview with The Scotsman. He said LIV spent “so we are told, over $7 billion,” with one aim being to “destroy the DP World Tour.” He added that he heard it from many people he has known for over 30 years and trusts “implicitly.”
That “so we are told” matters. No accounts or filings back the $7 billion figure, and McIlroy’s account rests on what he says he heard at Augusta. So this is a serious allegation from two credible voices, but it is still an allegation. Neither man has named anyone at LIV who said it.
What it means for the LIV Golf comeback
Here’s the thing: this is not just trash talk. It shapes who plays where next year, and where your favorite players show up on a Thursday. Kinnings says golfers who sign up for “LIV 2.0” will not be eligible for the DP World Tour in 2027. One tour or the other, not both.
At the same time, ESPN reports McIlroy agrees with letting former members who leave LIV return in 2027. We have also covered how McIlroy now says he’d vote to let LIV golfers come back. Jon Rahm and Sergio Garcia have already left LIV. Sky Sports adds Tyrrell Hatton and says they won’t re-sign with LIV.
McIlroy was blunt about the money. “It was always going to be good for a few years,” he said, until the backers “realized they weren’t going to get any return on investment.” He also called for “a bit of a reset” in men’s golf, per Sky Sports.
What happens next after the McIlroy LIV claim
The Abu Dhabi Championship starts Thursday as the first of two playoff events that end the DP World Tour season. Meanwhile, LIV has since found new investment and plans to relaunch in 2027. Players such as Louis Oosthuizen, who bailed on LIV for a schedule he controls, show which way some are leaning.
So watch for a LIV response, and for more players announcing which side of the line they land on.
Two of the sport’s most trusted voices now say the other side wanted the old tour gone. Whether anyone at LIV will own those words is the question nobody has answered, and the McIlroy LIV Golf feud stays unresolved until someone does.
