Rory being Rory, he has never had much of a filter. Ask him a question, and he will tell you exactly what he thinks, only to come back months later and explain why he no longer thinks the same thing.

“Why wouldn’t I speak my mind? You ask me my opinion, and I give it to you. I’m not going to stand up here and lie to you,” he said at the March 9, 2024, press conference at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill.

Some love him for it. Some hate him. But everyone values his opinion. Perhaps it played a key role in his inclusion on the PGA Tour’s Player Advisory Council back in 2019. McIlroy later served on the Tour’s policy board until November 2023. But there’s a running joke buried inside that honesty:

McIlroy changes his mind. A lot.

Here are four times the Ulsterman completely changed his position, going back to what he actually said at the time.

1. The Olympics and the desire to represent Great Britain

McIlroy’s Olympic problem started in 2012. He had represented Ireland throughout his junior and amateur career but admitted, “I’ve always felt more British than Irish,” and called having to choose between Ireland and Great Britain an “awful position to be in.”

By 2013, he was even considering skipping the Olympics completely, saying, “If I could and there was a Northern Irish team, I’d play for Northern Ireland.”

In 2014, he finally chose Ireland because that was who he had always represented in golf, calling it “just a continuation of what I’ve done.” Then came another turn.

McIlroy withdrew from Rio 2016 over Zika concerns and later sounded dismissive about the Olympics entirely, saying he would watch “the stuff that matters.” But after seeing Justin Rose win gold, he admitted, “It pleasantly surprised me” and said he was “glad to be somewhat proven wrong.”

That still did not erase his frustration.

In 2017, McIlroy said, “I resent the Olympic Games because of the position it put me in,” explaining that the event had forced him to publicly question his identity and loyalties. Four years later, his stance looked very different. After narrowly missing bronze in Tokyo, he said, “I never tried so hard in my life to finish third,” and admitted his earlier comments had been “uneducated and impulsive.”

Another three years, a fragmented landscape of professional golf, and by Paris 2024, the shift was complete. McIlroy called Olympic golf “one of the best individual competitions I’ve been a part of” and said it could eventually sit alongside the Ryder Cup. That’s his stated position now.

2. LIV Golf and Rory’s shifting position around those who switched

McIlroy’s fight with LIV started before LIV even existed.

In 2020, when the Saudi-backed Premier Golf League was being discussed, he rejected the breakaway idea and the source of its funding. “For me, I’m out,” he said, adding, “I didn’t really like where the money was coming from either.” By 2021, he was calling it a “money grab,” saying legacy mattered more than the payday.

When LIV became real in 2022, McIlroy went even harder.

He first declared it “dead in the water,” because none of his colleagues were committed to the project only to admit months later, “I took them [his colleagues who joined LIV] at their word, and I was wrong.”

His stance started shifting after the PGA Tour’s June 2023 framework agreement with Saudi Arabia’s PIF. McIlroy said, “I still hate LIV. Like, I hate LIV. Like, I hope it goes away,” but also admitted, “At the end of the day, money talks, and you would rather have them as a partner.”

By January 2024, a tinge of regret was evident: “If I regret anything, it was probably being too judgmental at the start,” said McIlroy.

It seemed Jon Rahm joining the breakaway league made him reconsider his position. McIlroy even asked for his colleagues to forgive and forget. In fact, he was the only person to call for lenient treatment of the defectors, and it caused a rift. At the same time, he also admitted that it would make the PGA Tour better if some LIV pros were to come back.

Till 2025, McIlroy was supportive of this idea. In between he also met Yasir Al-Rumayyan and praised his vision for golf. The negotiations between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf started with some mediation from POTUS. But no breakthrough was reached. Then came the shocker in early 2026.

PIF pulled its funding.

Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed already exited the league. McIlroy, in August 2025, was asked whether the PGA Tour should welcome the LIV golfers back. The Ulsterman didn’t seem to be enamored by the idea now that the PGA Tour had the upper hand.

“I mean, I would argue, have they brought value to LIV?” McIlroy said from Bellerive Country Club. “I think the PGA Tour’s in a really good spot.”

Between softening his stance and changing his tune around the return process, one thing remained constant: Rory McIlroy never became a LIV Golf fan. But he became more open and accepting of his peers who joined the breakaway league.

3. LIV Players at the Ryder Cup

In May 2023, McIlroy made his feelings about Europe’s LIV players clear. While he said Brooks Koepka deserved a place on the U.S. Ryder Cup team, his view of the European defectors was very different.

“I don’t think any of those guys should be a part of the European team,” he said, referring to players such as Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter, and Lee Westwood. By then, all three had resigned their DP World Tour memberships, which automatically made them ineligible for Team Europe.

McIlroy did not exactly soften after Europe won the Ryder Cup without them. In December, he mocked Henrik Stenson, who had lost the European captaincy after joining LIV. When a fan asked whether McIlroy also wanted the rules changed so Stenson could captain the team, he replied, “The best thing to happen to the 2023 Euro Ryder Cup team was Henrik going to LIV!”

Then Jon Rahm joined LIV that same week, and McIlroy’s tone changed almost immediately. “Jon is going to be in Bethpage in 2025,” he told Sky Sports. “Because of this decision, the European Tour is going to have to rewrite the rules for Ryder Cup eligibility. There’s absolutely no question about that. I certainly want Jon Rahm on the next Ryder Cup team.”

He also admitted, “You can’t judge someone for making a decision that they feel is the best thing for them.”

That makes this one of McIlroy’s most convenient-looking U-turns.

McIlroy was fine with Europe moving on from Garcia, Poulter, and Westwood. But when Rahm made the same LIV jump, suddenly the rules needed fixing.

The trio of Garcia, Poulter, and Westwood was already in the late stage of their careers, but Rahm was one of the pillars of the team. McIlroy knew the Spaniard’s importance and wanted the DP World Tour to do whatever it could to bring him to Bethpage.

There was another key difference: Rahm never quit the DP World Tour, so he could still remain eligible. In the end, McIlroy’s call to “rewrite the rules” was not as necessary as he made it sound.

When Rory got a little political

McIlroy’s relationship with Donald Trump started in 2017, when he accepted an invitation to play with the president. The backlash was immediate, but McIlroy defended himself, insisting, “This wasn’t an endorsement or a political statement.” His reasoning was simple: “Respect the office even if you don’t respect the guy that’s in it.”

By 2020, his tone had completely changed.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, McIlroy accused Trump of politicizing the crisis and said, “It’s not the way a leader should act.” He also revealed that he had turned down further invitations to play with Trump “out of choice.” Asked directly whether he would play with him again, McIlroy answered, “I probably wouldn’t, no.”

Five years later, that position changed too. In early 2025, McIlroy played with Trump again in South Florida, shortly before Trump’s inauguration, and described the round very differently: “It was great. Yeah, it was really good. I thought we had a good discussion.”

The conversation was not just about the golf swing.

McIlroy said they discussed the PGA Tour’s negotiations with Saudi Arabia’s PIF and argued Trump “can be influential” because of his relationships in the Middle East.

Interestingly, he never publicly took back his 2020 criticism. But his willingness to deal with POTUS clearly changed. He went from defending a round as respect for the presidency to saying he would not play with Trump again to getting back on the course when Trump could potentially help solve golf’s biggest business problem.

That is Rory McIlroy in a nutshell.

His willingness to say exactly what he thinks is one of his biggest strengths. It is also why there is always an old quote waiting for him when he changes his mind.