McIlroy regrets being "too judgemental" of LIV Golf rebels

Rory McIlroy speaks on the Stick To Football podcast

Rory McIlroy regrets being too judgemental of the LIV Golf rebels and his Ryder Cup car park rant but insists he wants to have no regrets about the Masters next April.

The four-time Major champion spoke frankly about the state of the game on Sky’s ‘Stick to Football’ podcast, admitting that LIV Golf is now part of golf’s reality.

“I wouldn’t say I’ve lost the fight against LIV, but I’ve just accepted the fact that this is part of our sport now,” said McIlroy, who believes the June 6 framework agreement between LIV’s Saudi backers and the game’s major tours “legitimised” the rebel circuit and made it easy for Jon Rahm to jump ship.

Rahm will defend his Masters title at Augusta National in April but McIlroy hopes to end his nine-year major drought there and finally complete the career grand slam,

“I’ve had my chances at Augusta before, and every year I take that little bit and try and put it into the next year,” said the world number two, who plans to play more golf in the build-up to the Masters this year. “After 14 or 15 years of it, you think it’s time to get this done.”

He added: “I went through stats review with my team last week and I’ve got this trend over the last few years where in May, June, July, and August that’s my best stretch of golf. So, if we can just get that into April when The Masters starts, we’ll be good.”

As for 2023, his big regret was his car park rant at the Ryder Cup in Rome after a run-in with Patrick Cantlay’s caddie Joe LaCava.

“I lost it, calling people names and things happened that I regret,” he said. “I used some language in front of people that should never hear that and I’m sitting in the car afterwards going, ‘I probably shouldn’t have done that.’  

“But we shook hands and made up and had a beer together on the Sunday night – everything was fine.”