Rory McIlroy: LIV rebels should not be punished for return to traditional tours

Rory McIlroy believes there should be no penalty for LIV rebels who want to return to play on traditional golf tours. McIlroy admits he has “changed his tune” following an earlier hardline stance against the LIV Golf Series but feels freedom of movement is necessary to protect his sport’s currently conflicting circuits.

Tyrrell Hatton this week became the latest high-profile figure to join the Saudi Arabian-backed tour. Jon Rahm, Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, Sergio García and Cameron Smith are among the other golfers who have signed hugely lucrative deals with LIV, which automatically prevented them from playing on the PGA Tour. The DP World Tour – formerly the European Tour – has issued fines and suspensions for those among their membership who breached regulations by playing on LIV.

A deal between the PGA Tour, DP World Tour, Saudi’s Public Investment Fund and Fenway Sports Group is close to completion. Key to that, it was always assumed, was a path back to the PGA or DP World Tour for LIV rebels, but after sanction. McIlroy, who has remained loyal to golf’s established ecosystem, now thinks that is needless. He will tee up on the PGA Tour at Pebble Beach this week as LIV’s third season kicks off in Mexico.

Related: Tyrrell Hatton to join LIV and pose more questions for Europe’s Ryder Cup team

“I think life is about choices,” said the world No 2. “Guys made choices to go and play LIV, guys made choices to stay here. If people still have eligibility on this tour and they want to come back and play or you want to try and do something, let them come back.

“I think it’s hard to punish people. I don’t think there should be a punishment. Obviously I’ve changed my tune on that because I see where golf is and I see that having a diminished PGA Tour and having a diminished LIV Tour or anything else is bad for both parties. It would be much better being together and moving forward together for the good of the game. That’s my opinion of it. So to me, the faster that we can all get back together and start to play and start to have the strongest fields possible I think is great for golf.”

McIlroy stressed he has no issue with Hatton, his Ryder Cup teammate who was in the field at Pebble Beach before an 11th-hour switch to LIV. Reports have estimated the 32-year-old Englishman’s LIV package at $50m (£39.3m).

“At the end of the day everyone needs to do with what’s right for them,” McIlroy added. “I had a long talk with Tyrrell on Sunday, completely understood where he was coming from. I’ve talked to him quite a bit about it over the past month. It got to the point where they negotiated and got to a place he was comfortable with and he has to do what he feels is right for him. I’m not going to stand in anyone’s way from making money and if what they deem life-changing money.”

McIlroy, who resigned from the PGA Tour’s policy board in November, revealed how close that group has been to validating golf’s peace deal. It was originally announced as a framework agreement in June. “I just hope they get it done,” said the four-time major winner.

“I know that they were supposed to vote on it Sunday night and there was a delay, they were supposed to vote on it last [Monday] night and there was a delay. I feel like this thing could have been over and done with months ago. I think just for all of our sakes that the sooner that we sort of get out of it and we have a path forward, the better.”