World No. 2 Rory McIlroy admits has been left puzzled by LIV Golf’s surprising change to their tournament format, stating it isn’t “what was holding them back”.
On Tuesday, LIV Golf announced that from 2026, tournaments would be contested over the traditional four-day, 72 hole format instead of 54 holes over three days which had been the case for the breakaway golf league.
The move is designed to align with the other major tours around the world to strengthen their case for LIV players to receive Official World Golf Ranking points.
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The league submitted an application in the past couple of months to the OWGR board for their players to start earning points on the LIV tour.
“Everyone wants to see the best players in the world competing against each other, especially in the majors, and for the good of the game, we need a path forward,“ LIV star Bryson DeChambeau said.
“By moving to 72 holes, LIV Golf is taking a proactive step to align with the historic format recognised globally. This is a fantastic evolution of the LIV Golf product.”
Stemming from his strong defence of the PGA Tour, McIlroy has been one of the Saudi-backed rebel golf league’s staunchest critics.
When asked about LIV’s format change ahead of his appearance in the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, McIlroy admitted his confusion.
Bryson Dechambeau is unsurprisingly in favour with the move.Source: Getty Images
“I think it’s a peculiar move because I think they could have got ranking points with three rounds,” McIlroy said.
“I don’t think three rounds versus four rounds is what was holding them back.”
McIlroy continued on why the move didn’t make sense in his mind, believing it’s essentially a case of too little too late.
“I think what’s hard is you’ve got the LIV guys, and say potentially they get World Rankings, but because their strength of fields are going to be so weak because a lot of the guys have fallen already in the rankings because they have not had ranking points for so long, I don’t know if the ranking points are really going to benefit them,” he said.
“It will be interesting to see how it plays out.”
McIlroy is striving for his first ever win in the HSBC Championship. He’ll tee it up at the Yas Links Golf Club at 4:23pm (AEDT) alongside Tyrell Hatton and Marco Penge.
