McILroy disappointed with LIV Golf Series players 'fracturing' golf

Rory McIlroy has expressed his disappointment at the players who performed a U-turn to join the Saudi-backed LIV Golf Series, as he conceded being the poster boy of the PGA Tour was a "burden" he could do without.

McIlroy felt the proposed rebel circuit was "dead in the water" after Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau committed their futures to the PGA Tour in the wake of Phil Mickelson's explosive comments about the Tour and Saudi Arabia being published in February.

In an interview with the author of a recently published biography, Mickelson admitted he was fully aware of Saudi Arabia’s "horrible record on human rights", including the murder of Washington Post reporter Jamal Khashoggi, but was using the threat of a breakaway to "reshape" how the Tour operates.

LIV Golf chief executive Greg Norman said the organisation’s full league of 14 events had been ready to launch until Mickelson’s comments cost him several sponsors and resulted in some players backing out, with eight $25million events scheduled this year instead.

Mickelson and Johnson were among the field for the first of those at Centurion Club in Hertfordshire last week, with DeChambeau announcing he had joined LIV Golf during the second round.

"I guess I took a lot of players’ statements at face value. I guess that’s what I got wrong," McIlroy said ahead of the 122nd US Open at Brookline.

"You had people committed to the PGA Tour, and that’s what the statements were that were put out. People went back on that.

"It’s disappointing. The players that are staying on the PGA Tour feel slighted in some way. If those guys (who have left) thought outside of themselves, they would see this is not the best for everyone.

"My dad said to me a long time ago, once you make your