US Open gives McIlroy chance to leave politics behind and end major drought

R ory McIlroy could spend half of his life battling misconceptions had he the inclination or the energy. The latest surround the supposed fury the 34-year-old should have over the extraordinary events of recent days, where aghast onlookers have witnessed the PGA and DP World Tours combine with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) to ensure – in theory at least – peace in our golfing time. A lesson in recent history would be apposite before McIlroy’s position is considered.

The Northern Irishman has cause to be conflicted. He was as stunned by Tuesday’s announcement as everyone bar the handful of individuals who have changed the shape of elite golf for ever. The rest of us required smelling salts. Yet the sense McIlroy was embattled or insistent on continuing war is inaccurate.

“This ‘us versus them’ thing has gotten way out of control,” he said in the Guardian in October. McIlroy did not believe Saudi intentions in golf were bad but that they had been “misguided” in how to spend vast swathes of money; namely on the rebel LIV circuit.

McIlroy is a genius with golf club in hand but far smarter away from the course than he is widely given credit for. He is superb at sizing up people and situations. With this in mind, it is highly plausible he foresaw a settlement between warring factions. It was the nature and timing of it that caused “shock” to the four-time major winner. Far from backing away from ongoing and potentially explosive litigation, PIF has struck a deal with sworn enemies. What next? Joe Biden as Donald Trump’s presidential running mate?

As the PGA Tour’s most prominent voice in the locker room, McIlroy went above and beyond in public and in private to keep players within the traditional model as LIV