'Who knows' - Rory McIlroy teases shock LIV switch

Rory McIlroy has suggested there is a chance he could leave the PGA Tour and join LIV Golf.

McIlroy took a strident position against the big-money Saudi venture, which has tempted a host of top names with lavish paydays and disrupted the established order of the PGA and European Tours.

But the world number two – who even claimed last summer that he would "rather retire" than become a LIV rebel – has softened his stance in recent months as Europe Ryder Cup team-mates Jon Rahm and Tyrell Hatton have made the switch from the PGA Tour, saying that players who wished to return to the PGA Tour should be able to do so without sanction.

McIlroy's former agent Chubby Chandler has claimed the Northern Irishman could make a shock move to LIV Golf – and the four-time major champion did not completely dismiss the idea ahead of the Cognizant Classic in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.

Chandler put a potential switch at 10% and, asked at a pre-tournament press conference whether he would put a percentage on him joining LIV Golf, McIlroy replied with a smile: "Somewhere in the middle maybe. Who knows?

"I think he’s writing a book, so there is that. I spoke to Chubby, I might have seen him in the Middle East at the start of the year.

"Never know. He might know a few things. Who knows?"

Rory addresses the LIV rumour pic.twitter.com/1jwQSb7r9f

The PGA Tour is still in merger negotiations with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, which financially backed LIV and got several big names to break away from the tour in 2022 and 2023.The PGA Tour suspended those players indefinitely for playing on the LIV circuit, most recently Rahm, who signed with LIV in December.

Since then, a consortium of US-based sports franchise owners called the Strategic Sports