Rory McIlroy has been known to take some sharp U-turns on his opinions over the last few years, particularly as it relates to the PGA Tour and LIV Golf. He was willing to state another position Wednesday as strong as any.
He is not playing the PGA Tour Champions when he turns 50.
“Absolutely not,” McIlroy said with a smile.
This came up during a discussion on how difficult it can be to retire from golf given the nature of the game that allows players to leave when they want. McIlroy would like to retire even when he still can win. “With a little bit left in the tank,” he said.
That's when someone brought up the 50-and-older circuit, and McIlroy drew the line.
“Look, I've said a lot of absolutes in my time that I've walked back,” he said. “But I do not envision playing Champions Tour golf. Something has went terribly wrong if I have to compete at golf at 50.”
White House memories
Adam Scott had no idea when he agreed to join the Player Advisory Council for the first time just over a year ago that it would take him to the White House to meet with the president.
Scott was in meetings with PGA Tour Commissioner and President Donald Trump on Feb. 4 and Feb. 20 as the tour tries to come to an agreement with the Saudi backers of LIV Golf.
He was asked what memory he took from the experience.
“It was obvious to me very quickly when they were setting up for the Israeli delegation right after our meeting — putting the Israeli flag and the U.S. flag and getting that room ready — that our conversation was pretty low in the importance of what was happening that day,” he said.
“And really, the president had far more important things to focus on,” he said. “And I encouraged him to go and do that well for everyone’s sake after our meeting.”
LIV at The Players
Laurie Canter is a European tour player, a 36-year-old from England making his debut in The Players Championship. He stands out from the other 24 newcomers to the TPC Sawgrass.
He's the first LIV Golf player in the PGA Tour's premier event.
Canter played on the Saudi-backed circuit when it started in 2022 because the first event in the U.K. was right up the road for him. He was an alternate in 2023, and filled in one more time in 2024 in Las Vegas in early February. He pulled in just over $5.3 million.
And then he was back to the European tour, playing some of his best golf. He won the European Open last year, he won in Bahrain to start this year, and his playoff loss in the South African Open enabled him to crack the top 50 in the world ranking to get into The Players.
The PGA Tour has a policy that anyone playing in LIV must wait a year before competing in a tournament, and Canter last played one year and one month ago.
“No, I don't feel like a trailblazer,” he said with a laugh.
What helped Canter was a poor year in 2021. He had conditional status on the DP World Tour in Europe, meaning whenever he played a LIV event, he had no trouble getting a release from the tour because he wasn't eligible for the tournaments that week.
This is a big week for him, because staying in the top 50 in three weeks will get him into the Masters. This will be his first regular PGA Tour event, and he would welcome more.
“I think anyone who plays golf would,” he said. “Last week (Bay Hill) I watched and where those signature events are going, if you could play well enough to where you've got your world ranking where you've got signature events and majors ... what a year that is for a golfer to play those venues with those golfers for that amount of money. It's incredible.”
The purse this week is $25 million.
Caddie ace
JJ Jakovac earned a piece of history Wednesday at The Players Championship. The caddie for Collin Morikawa made the first hole-in-one on the island-green 17th hole during the annual caddie competition.
Jakovac used a pitching wedge from 131 yards, the ball landing perfectly to catch the slope down to the front pin.
This wasn't a fluke swing. Jakovac played in the Palmer Cup in 2004 — he was roommates with Ryan Moore, for whom he later caddied — and won two NCAA Division II titles while playing at Cal State-Chico.
The caddie competition started to honor Tom Watson’s longtime caddie and friend, Bruce Edwards, who died in 2004 from ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease.
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AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
Doug Ferguson, The Associated Press
