Mission statements age badly when the money behind them runs out. LIV Golf is learning that in public, and Rory McIlroy is in no mood to let it slide. With the breakaway league in Chapter 11 and its Saudi funding ending after 2026, LIV is, in McIlroy’s telling, now preaching cooperation to the very circuit it allegedly wanted to flatten. Speaking ahead of the Abu Dhabi Championship, McIlroy backed DP World Tour CEO Guy Kinnings’ explosive Scotsman interview and went further.
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“They took players; they took sponsors; they turned professional golf into an arms race. They were going around Augusta saying they wanted to destroy The European Tour,” McIlroy said, according to Flushing It on X.
Kinnings relayed what he said trusted contacts told him, and McIlroy named nobody at Augusta. It is an allegation, not fact, but it carries weight coming from the Tour’s biggest star. The sharper jab targeted LIV’s new tone.
“Then, it’s ironic that a week later, now they are talking about completing and not competing and all that. That’s different from what they were saying at the start of the year,” he further added.
He did not say who at LIV used that language. What is clear is how fast the ground has shifted. LIV filed for bankruptcy protection in New Jersey on September 8. On October 14, its attorney Rob Fitzgerald told a judge a decision on winding down or moving to a 2.0 model would come by month’s end, and said of Kinnings’ ultimatum that “the timing in particular strikes us as a clear attempt to interfere with our process.”
Rory McIlroy also questioned LIV’s best-known gesture to other tours: “Look, there was some of the money that they used the right way, created the International Series on The Asian Tour, great for a couple years, but where did that leave the Asian Tour? They left them high and dry.”
The Asian Tour frames it differently. On July 21, it joined the PGA Tour and DP World Tour in a partnership running through at least 2029, with co-sanctioned events returning from 2027. CEO Cho Minn Thant said a LIV link made sense six years ago, but “given the circumstances now, we’ve had to look at other options.”
Two accounts, one result: the tour that fed LIV’s promotion-and-relegation system has walked away.
McIlroy believes the DP World Tour is now in a much stronger position, with several players wanting to return to the European circuit. He also said the Tour is close to reaching a new agreement with the PGA Tour for the period after 2027, with progress expected in the coming weeks.
Not everything is confirmed. The Flushing It account, citing its own sourcing, claims LIV CEO Scott O’Neil wrecked the relationship at the Masters by seeking a penalty-free deal for LIV players while also threatening the Tour’s existence. That has not been independently verified.
If LIV really did talk about destroying the Tour, the evidence is still secondhand. LIV’s lawyers said in October they were “reserving all rights and remedies” over earlier DP World Tour statements, though that came before Kinnings’ latest interview.
The DP World Tour is now caught in an increasingly bitter battle with LIV Golf, as fresh allegations of a plot to destroy the European circuit emerge amid the Saudi-backed league’s financial turmoil.
CEO Guy Kinnings has claimed LIV spent more than $7 billion trying to weaken the tour, with Rory McIlroy backing accusations that its representatives openly discussed dismantling it. The claims add another layer of tension as LIV faces a funding crisis and the DP World Tour takes a harder stance on players seeking to return.
What is certain is the power swing. A league that arrived promising to rewrite the sport now needs the Tour it allegedly targeted more than that Tour needs it.