Rory McIlroy has welcomed the PGA Tour’s shock merger with the Saudi Arabia-backed LIV Golf, stating it ‘good for golf’.

McIlroy, one of the most ardent critics of LIV Golf, stated that despite his continued “hatred” for the upstart circuit, he believed Tuesday’s deal would secure the sport’s financial future.

“I think ultimately, when I try to remove myself from the situation and I look at the bigger picture and I look at 10 years down the line, I think ultimately this is going to be good for the game of professional golf,” McIlroy said.

“It unifies it and it secures its financial future.”

On the eve of this week’s PGA Canadian Open in Toronto, McIlroy made his first comments since the bombshell agreement was revealed on Tuesday.

Under the terms of the new agreement, the PGA Tour and Europe’s DP World Tour have signed a contract with LIV’s Saudi backers that will result in “a new collectively owned, for-profit entity.”

The dramatic about-face comes after more than a year of bitter animosity that has torn apart the sport of golf.

McIlroy is rumoured to have rejected an offer in the vicinity of $400 million to switch to LIV, but he denied receiving a bid for his services on Wednesday.

“I was never offered any money,” McIlroy said.

The Northern Irishman, on the other hand, acknowledged that he understood his peers’ displeasure with PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, but insisted that he still had faith in the under fire tour chief.

“I’ve dealt with Jay a lot closer than a lot of those guys have,” McIlroy said.

“From where we were a couple of weeks ago to where we are today, I think the future of the PGA Tour looks brighter as a whole, as an entity.”

However, McIlroy is adamant that players who switched to LIV last year should not have an automatic path back into the sport.

“There still has to be consequences to actions,” McIlroy said.

“The people that left the PGA Tour irreparably harmed this tour, started litigation against it. Like, we can’t just welcome them back in. That’s not going to happen.

“And I think that was the one thing that Jay was trying to get across yesterday is like, ‘Guys, we’re not just going to bring these guys back in and pretend like nothing has happened.’

“That is not going to happen.”

McIlroy concurred that players who remained loyal to the PGA Tour despite lucrative offers to join LIV should be “made whole” monetarily.

“The simple answer is yes,” McIlroy said. “The complex answer is how does that happen, right? That’s all a gray area and up in the air at the minute.”

McIlroy further argued that Tuesday’s agreement between the PGA and DP World Tours and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund — the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund that financed LIV — was not a “merger” with LIV.

“It’s not LIV. I think that’s the thing. I still hate LIV. Like, I hate LIV. Like, I hope it goes away,” McIlroy said.

“And I would fully expect that it does. And I think that’s where the distinction here is. This is the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour and the PIF. Very different from LIV.

“All I’ve tried to do is protect what the PGA Tour is and what the PGA Tour stands for. And I think it will continue to do that.”

Photo by EPA/CJ GUNTHER