Rory McIlroy’s comments about LIV Golf, Anthony Kim’s professional comeback and Talor Gooch’s viral interview about the majors all feature in a bumper edition of the Sky Sports Golf podcast.
Henni Koyack and Zane Scotland join regular host Josh Antmann to look through the big talking points in the sport and preview another action-packed week in the golfing calendar.
The panel react to Gooch criticising the lack of major exemptions on offer to LIV Golf players, where he claimed the winner of The Masters would need an asterisk next to their name due to the absence of certain players.
McIlroy was asked to respond to Gooch’s comments ahead of the Cognizant Classic, along with rumours of him ever joining LIV Golf, with the podcast looking at what golf’s future could mean for the four-time major champion.
“I think, at some point, let’s say in five years or 10 years’ time, we’re looking at everything merging,” Koyack told the Sky Sports Golf podcast. “Whether that’s in the form of LIV or the PGA Tour and PIF merger creates another tour by a different name in a different format, who knows.
“If you’re being pedantic, then yes. He [McIlroy] will, at some point, if he continues to play golf on the PGA Tour, play for or alongside or merged with a tour created by the PIF – which is essentially what LIV is.
“When will that merger happen and what will it look like? Will it be different tours with different formats? Will it be LIV? Will it be something else? There’s so many questions we just don’t know.
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When questioned about comments made by his former agent, Chubby Chandler, suggesting a move to LIV Golf could still be impossible, Rory McIlroy kept his cards close to his chest.
“I just think Rory has been put in a really tough position all along. Initially, he was put in the position of spokesperson going to war for the PGA Tour going to war against the PIF and LIV and the Saudis.
“He put himself in that position because he believed he was fighting for this cause and so he said some very strong comments, because they essentially were being pitted together in this war. Then the merger happens, there has been a truce and the two different sides have come together.
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A look back on how Rory McIlroy’s stance on LIV Golf appears to have changed over the course of the last two years.
“It’s my long-winded way of saying yes he will at some point, but who knows what will look like. He has just been put in a really tough spot from a PR point of view, when the PGA Tour did the ultimate U-turn. McIlroy is slowly having to do the same, because of the position he has been put in.”
The podcast looks back at some of the highlights and lowlights from a weather-delayed finish at PGA National, where Thomas Detry experienced a nightmare five-putt from six feet, plus review Kim’s return to professional golf at the LIV Golf event in Saudi.
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Henni Koyak believes Anthony Kim’s comeback to golf was successful, despite him finishing last in his first LIV event.
There’s also a look ahead of an International Women’s Day event at the Belfry and a preview to this week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational, with some mixed reviews on how the PGA Tour’s Signature Events have gone so far this season.
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Speaking on the Sky Sports Golf Podcast, Zane Scotland says the PGA Tour’s elevated events are being hurt by the absence of players who are now playing on LIV Golf.
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