June 6, 2023, is a historic day for the golf world! The golf world was stunned when the PGA Tour and the Saudi Public Investment Fund announced a framework agreement to create a new global golf entity. However, the $3 billion merger was met with mixed reactions, and some people were even curious about the backstory of the merger. The wait has not come to an end since the Tour’s very own loyalist, Rory McIlroy, shed some light on the matter.

McIlroy was one of the first people from the PGA Tour to interact with him, even before Jay Monahan did. The entire merger saga somewhat started at the end of 2022. The former world no. 1 revealed some interesting and unknown behind-the-scenes details about the potential PIF and PGA Tour merger and how things were initiated!

Is Rory McIlroy the man behind the historic merger?

The 34-year-old sat down on the Stick to Football podcast and chatted about everything about the golf world. But what got attention was his revelation on the merger. The 24x PGA Tour winner revealed that he had met with Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of the PIF, in Dubai in the year 2022.

He initiated the dialogue between him and Rumayyan. McIlroy said, “So I met Yasir at the end of last year in 2022 in Dubai and just said, What do you want? What is it in golf that, you know, what do you want to do?” The Northern Irishman described his chat with the PIF Governor as a good one. 

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The 16x European Tour winner was curious about Al-Rumayyan’s vision for golf and what he wanted to achieve. They had a fruitful chat and Al-Rumayyan’s innovative ideas impressed the golfer. Particularly, ‘the team element’ and ‘to build franchise value in some of these teams’. He listened to his ideas and “understood some of it.” 

After he chatted with the Governor, McIlroy returned to America and was eager to share Yasir-Al-Rumayyan’s vision with the entire PGA Tour policy board, as at that time, he was a part of it.

What happened after McIlroy returned to the US?

After returning home, the Irishman shared his experience with the PGA Tour board. He suggested to the board members that “someone’s got to go, you know, talk to this guy” and explore the possibility of a partnership. He further revealed the plan they made to approach the governor. The plan was to put in place to have one of the board members develop a relationship with Al-Rumayyan and try to figure out a way to move forward together.

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The four-time major winner was aware that conversations were being held, but he did not expect the deal to happen so quickly. He further shared that on June 6, when the announcement was made, many PGA Tour pros were “angered by it because they were completely blindsided by it.”

What are your thoughts about McIlroy’s remarks on his meeting with the PIF Governor? Let us know in the comment section below. Stay tuned to find out how the merger between the former rivals pans out!

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