Rory McIlroy: Not sending message with PGA Tour-LIV match - ESPN

Rory McIlroy said Wednesday he wasn't trying to send a message by agreeing to team up with world No. 1 golfer Scottie Scheffler in a made-for-TV match against LIV Golf League stars Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka in December.

Last week's announcement of the match came as officials from the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund prepared to meet in New York this week to continue talks about a potential investment that might bring the fractured sport back together.

The PIF is financing LIV Golf, which has lured DeChambeau, Koepka, Jon Rahm and others from the PGA Tour.

«I don't know much about the talks that are going on. I know that there is but that's not something that I'm a part of,» McIlroy said Wednesday during a news conference at the Irish Open.

«Yeah, I mean, I think we are all in the game of golf trying to look for a solution to all this and try to move forward. So we'll see, yeah. I know as much as you do at this point, and I'm sure news will start to trickle out here in the next few days.»

McIlroy is a member of a PGA Tour Enterprises transactional subcommittee that has been negotiating with the Saudis, along with golfers Tiger Woods and Adam Scott.

Last week, McIlroy confirmed that he'd agreed to participate in the exhibition match against the LIV Golf stars, which is expected to take place at an undetermined golf course in Las Vegas.

The PGA Tour is expected to grant McIlroy and Scheffler media releases to appear in the event, like it has done in other events for charity in the past.

McIlroy said his decision to participate had nothing to do with his frustration over the divide that has consumed men's professional golf for much of the past three years.

«I wouldn't say it's meant to send a