Rory McIlroy has opened up about the toll on his mental health caused by the bitter feud between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, but the four-time major champion insists he has no regrets
Rory McIlroy has admitted his mental health has been “difficult” amid the bitter feud between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf.
McIlroy, a four-time major champion, became the de facto spokesperson for the PGA Tour after the independent league LIV was launched in 2022. McIlroy was adamantly opposed to the Saudi-funded league and criticized commissioner Greg Norman and several players who made the jump. .
The Northern Irishman felt like a “sacrificial lamb” when it was announced last summer that rival tours had reached a framework agreement to unite, but his stance has softened in recent days.
McIlroy has since stepped down as PGA Tour player director to focus on his game amidst merger talks between the tours.
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The 34-year-old told the I Can Fly podcast that if he hadn’t built up a thick skin throughout his playing career, this story would have taken a more serious toll.
“My mental health has probably suffered quite a bit over the last few years,” he said. “I’ve always prided myself on being a very resilient person. I think earlier in my career I was more of a shallow person, but in doing so I learned to be a little tougher. I think I learned it.
“If I had been thin, I don’t think I would have put myself out there and spoken out as much as I did because I wouldn’t have been able to deal with what was going to be thrown at me.
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“Someone once told me that doing the right thing is hard, that’s how my parents raised me and that’s how I tried to live my life. We want to do the right thing, but most of the time, the right thing is also the hard thing to do.”
McIlroy has recently toned down his criticism of LIV, but insists he is fully committed to the PGA Tour and would not have done anything differently in hindsight.
“No matter how hard I try and want everyone in this world to like me, it just won’t happen. It’s just not possible. Realize that and everyone will like me anyway. I think this is what happened when I thought it wasn’t going to happen,” he explained. When you become more comfortable with who you are as a person and feel good about yourself, you can be a little more direct and say things that might make other people uncomfortable.
“But at the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter what other people say as long as you have love from those closest to you. That’s the approach I’ve taken over the last two years. Some relationships have been damaged along the way. ?That’s true, but time is a great healer and even though I was saying out loud what I believed, I would do it again.”
