Rory McIlroy told to ‘f--- off’ in players’ meeting about PGA Tour-LIV deal

Rory McIlroy became involved in a foul-mouthed slanging match at the already infamous players’ meeting at the Canadian Open as PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan attempted to justify the merger with the Saudi sovereign wealth fund.

McIlroy kept quiet until Grayson Murray, the world No 227, shouted for Monahan to resign, saying “we don’t trust you, Jay – you lied to our face”. McIlroy yelled back “just play better, Grayson”, but in a mutinous atmosphere the world No 3’s defence of Monahan apparently did not achieve unanimous approval.

Golf Channel first reported the exchange and another source has confirmed to Telegraph Sport that Murray responded by telling McIlroy to “f--- off”.

Shane Lowry, the 2019 Open champion, was another of the golfers who spoke up in the Toronto clubhouse – where the Canadian Open is due to start on Thursday. The meeting took place just a few hours after Monahan sat alongside Yasir Al-Rumayyan, governor of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, to announce the deal in a live TV interview.  At that point, only a handful of people knew about the alliance. And not one of those people plays golf for a living.

These included McIlroy as well as Tiger Woods and the reaction was inevitably febrile when Monahan confronted the players he supposedly works for in a members-owned organisation which pays him about £10 million per annum.

Johnson Wagner estimated that the negative/positive split of the room was “90/10”, with Monahan coming under siege.

“There’s a lot of disappointment today,” Ryan Armour, a member of the Player Advisory Council, said. “What I have been told by my peers is that they feel betrayed right now. There must have been 20-25 guys who used that word. They feel backstabbed. And they feel slighted… For a year and a half now, we have been told how evil certain golf leagues are, how evil their funding is and where it’s coming from. No financials have changed hands yet, but the mood in the room is that guys feel used.”

Geoff Ogilvy concurred. “I’m glad I wasn’t Jay today,” said the 2006 US Open champion. “There’s some grumpy players in there. I feel a little bit sort of, not lied to, but just that the tour has sort of changed its position quickly and dropped it on us really fast. So maybe there’s a feeling of a lack of trust a little bit in the leadership.

“It just feels like nobody really knows what’s happening and the players are out of the loop. But no one really ever likes being out of a loop. You know, everyone likes a bit of information, and especially when it’s your livelihood and your job and the sport that you love.”

Monahan explained the merger was necessary to put an end to the lawsuits. He described the agreement as a “framework” and acknowledged that it still needed to be approved by the Tour’s policy board. Yet the room knew it will be waved through. It was not only Murray calling for his head and the ‘hypocrite” accusation was being liberally hurled around, a fact Monahan later acknowledged.

“I recognise that people are going to call me a hypocrite,” he said. “But anytime I said anything, I said it based on the information I had at the moment, and based on someone trying to compete for the PGA Tour and our players. I accept those criticisms.”

The players remains in the dark. Details are scant on the amount of the PIF investment, on anything resembling a schedule and if and when the rebels who did take the money will be allowed back on Tour.

“We didn’t learn that much other than there’s going to be an alliance and the business structure is going to change, and I don’t know if it’s all going to be happy families,” Ogilvy said. “I’m sure there’s going to be a little bit of carnage.”

The criticism of Monahan and PGA Tour executives did not stop with their members, with accusations that they should be “ashamed of their hypocrisy and greed” coming from the 9/11 Families United group, relatives of those who died in the September 11 attacks that were referenced by Monahan when damning the Saudi-backed LIV Golf series.

A statement from the group said: “Saudi operatives played a role in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and now it is bankrolling all of professional golf. Mr Monahan talked last summer about knowing people who lost loved ones on 9/11, then wondered aloud on national television whether LIV golfers ever had to apologise for being a member of the PGA Tour. They do now – as does he. PGA Tour leaders should be ashamed of their hypocrisy and greed.”

Bryson DeChambeau hardly helped the situation with his comments on CNN. When  asked about 9/11 and the 2018 state-approved murder of Washington Post journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, DeChambeau defended the  Saudis, in an utterance similar to the utterance of Greg Norman, the LIV chief executive, who said “everyone makes mistakes” at the launch of the breakaway series.

“Nobody’s perfect,” DeChambeau said, “ut we’re all trying to improve in life. It’s unfortunate what’s happened, but it’s something I can’t necessarily speak on, because I’m a golfer. What I can say is, what they’re trying to do, what they’re trying to work on is to be better allies. I’m not going to get into the politics of it, I’m not specialised in that. What I can say is they are trying to do good for the world and showcase themselves in a light that hasn’t been seen in awhile.”