Rory McIlroy resigns as player director on PGA Tour policy board - ESPN

ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Georgia — Four-time major champion Rory McIlroy, one of the PGA Tour's most vocal supporters during its battle with LIV Golf, has resigned as a player director on the tour's influential policy board, a tour official confirmed to ESPN on Tuesday.

McIlroy, the No. 2 golfer in the world, announced his resignation in a letter to the full policy board on Tuesday. He joined the board in 2022 and was expected to serve through 2024. He cited personal and professional commitments in making his decision to leave the board.

«Given the extraordinary time and effort that Rory — and all of his fellow player directors — have invested in the tour during this unprecedented, transformational period in our history, we certainly understand and respect his decision to step down in order to focus on his game and his family,» Monahan and Edward D. Herlihy, the policy board's chairman, said in a statement, as first reported by The New York Times.

McIlroy was blindsided by the PGA Tour's controversial decision on June 6 to enter into a framework agreement to form a partnership with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and the DP World Tour. He had been a loud critic of the breakaway LIV Golf League, which is being funded by Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund.

McIlroy wasn't informed of the framework agreement until a few hours before it was announced by Monahan and PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan on CNBC.

At a news conference at the RBC Canadian Open the day after the deal was announced, McIlroy admitted that he was stung by the news after taking such a strong stance against LIV Golf, which had poached star golfers like Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, Phil Mickelson and others from the PGA Tour with