Rory McIlroy says he'd sooner retire than play at LIV Golf

Rory McIlroy laughed off a Saudi-backed idea that he and Tiger Woods own LIV Golf teams, saying Thursday he would retire if playing for LIV was the only option.

The concept came from an April document titled, "The Best of Both Worlds," provided to Congress ahead of a Senate subcommittee hearing Tuesday on the PGA Tour's agreement to partner with the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia.

"LIV is proposing that Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods would own teams and play in at least 10 LIV events. This and the participation of other leading players is subject to further discussions," one item in the proposal said.

That was brought to McIlroy's attention after his opening round of the Scottish Open, and he looked bemused.

"If LIV Golf was the last place to play golf on earth, I would retire. That's how I feel about it," McIlroy said. "I'd play the majors. I'd be pretty comfortable."

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That was part of several pie-in-the-sky proposals in the eight-page presentation geared toward finding a compromise between the golf circuits. It was produced by Amanda Staveley of British-based PCP Capital Partners. She helped broker the Public Investment Fund acquiring Newcastle United of the English Premier League and is advising the Saudis in golf.

Other proposals included LIV players being able to have PGA Tour playing rights restored, world ranking points from LIV events applied retroactively and for Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of PIF, to have an Augusta National membership.

McIlroy said he watched only a little of the Senate hearing because there wasn't much information he didn't already know.

"There was going to be some new information for other people,"