Rory McIlroy questions validity of LIV Golf again as he prepares for US Open

Rory McIlroy has again questioned the sporting validity of the rebel LIV Golf Series, two days after taking a swipe at Greg Norman in the immediate aftermath of his Canadian Open victory.

The first event of the LIV scheme, backed financially by Saudi Arabia and fronted by Norman, took place last week in Hertfordshire. The build-up to the US Open, which begins at Brookline on Thursday, has been dominated by chatter about this great disruption plan. McIlroy remains a firm advocate of the existing ecosystem.

“It’s the cloud that’s hanging over golf at the minute, right?” he said. “We are at a major championship and it’s what everyone wants to talk about so it’s on everyone’s mind.

“Those crowds on Sunday in Canada, LIV is never going to have that. It’s never going to have that sense of, I don’t know what the word is… but last week meant something. What they are doing over there doesn’t really mean anything apart from just collecting a ton of money.”

McIlroy subsequently pointed to the “competitive integrity” of seeing off Justin Thomas and Tony Finau in Toronto. McIlroy has been careful not to castigate his fellow professionals, including Phil Mickelson, who have been banned by the PGA Tour after accepting LIV’s lucrative overtures but he clearly remains unimpressed by their choice. “My dad said to me a long time ago, once you make your bed, you lie in it, and they’ve made their bed,” McIlroy said. “That’s their decision, and they have to live with that.”

Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau pledged allegiance to the PGA Tour early this year before performing a U-turn and signing for LIV. McIlroy had claimed the breakaway looked “dead in the water” at the point of the original position. “I took a lot of players’ statements