Anirban Lahiri. Doug Defelice/LIV Golf

India’s Anirban Lahiri told The Times of London on Thursday he knows of “at least a dozen players who’d rather not play golf than go back to the PGA Tour.”

Belgian Thomas Pieters said recently he’d retire before going back to the American circuit. And, of course, there’s the case of Bryson DeChambeau, explained expertly today by our Joel Beall.

Rory McIlroy – Ben Jared

For all of them, Rory McIlroy had an unsubtle message after his Friday round in the Truist. The Ulsterman demurred on most questions about LIV and is heartened that some players might return to his “home” DP World Tour. But for those throwing shade on the PGA Tour, McIlroy had this: “If you want to be the most competitive golfer you can be, this is the place to be. And if you don’t want to play here, I think that says something about you.”

Mic drop. Press conference over.

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The reigning Masters champion spoke with reporters after his Hero Dubai Desert Classic pro-am at the Emirates Golf Club, site of this week’s DP World Tour Rolex Series opener. He canvassed topics from a potential reunification between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, whether Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton should pay their Ryder Cup fines and how McIlroy’s attitude could improve in 2026 after the greatest year of his career.

Professional golf is approaching three years since the June 6, 2023, framework agreement was announced between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf’s financiers, the Public Investment Fund. But LIV Golf has continued to sign PGA Tour pros such as recent recruits Thomas Detry and Ben An. Meanwhile, Brooks Koepka left LIV Golf to rejoin the PGA Tour following CEO Brian Rolapp’s creation of the Returning Member Program.

McIlroy, chasing a record fifth Dubai Desert Classic win this week, was quizzed whether a reunification of golf still matters, saying, “I think it matters; I would say that’s Solution A. But I just don’t see a world where it can happen at this point.”

The 29-time PGA Tour winner was pressed on why.

“I just I don’t see a world where the two or three sides [tours] or whoever it is will give up enough,” McIlroy said. “For reunification to happen, every side is going to feel like they will have lost, whereas you really want every side to feel like they have won. I think they are just too far apart for that to happen.

“I definitely think the additional tours, if you want to call them, have weathered the worst of the storm.”

For the first time, however, McIlroy put a number (10) on an optimal amount of tournaments where fans can see the world’s best golfers in the same field.

Currently, that only happens at four major championships and select DP World Tour events.

“My opinion is that golf would be better served if all the best players in the world played together a little more often. We’re really only seeing that at the major championships,” McIlroy, 36, said. “But you’re talking about a handful of guys that are missing [out on], say, a Players Championship or some of theother bigger tournaments in the world. I’d like to see the best players play together maybe 10 times a year instead of four times a year.”

They come together at the Ryder Cup, too—24 of the best European and American golfers. Although now uncertainty surrounds two key members of the European team: Hatton and Rahm. The duo’s move to LIV Golf in 2024 meant they accumulate fines for competing in tournaments which conflict with the DP World Tour, where both are members.

DP World Tour officials confirmed to Golf Digest in Dubai that the combined total of the fines for Rahm and Hatton was several million dollars. Rahm and Hatton appealed the fines in 2024, meaning they can continue playing on the DP World Tour—which runs the European team at the Ryder Cup—until there is a hearing for their appeals.

McIlroy was asked if a simpler solution would be for Rahm and Hatton to pay their sanctions.

“Yeah, absolutely. This is my opinion. [leading up to the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black] we went really hard on the American [team] about being paid to play the Ryder Cup, and we also said that we would pay to play in Ryder Cups,” McIlroy said. “There are two guys that can prove it.”

McIlroy feels the DP World Tour sanctions are reasonable. “I think any … any members’ organisation like this has a right to uphold its rules and regulations,” he said. “And what the DP World Tour are doing is upholding their rules and regulations and we, as members, sign a document at the start of every year, which has you agree to these rules and regulations, and the people that made the option to go to LIV knew what they were. So, I don’t see what’s wrong with that, I guess, is my opinion.”

McIlroy did talk about his own game, too. The World No. 2 is teeing up for his second official tournament of 2026. Although the Dubai Desert Classic is the first elite field of the year. After a career-defining 2025 season—highlighted by wins at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Players Championship, Masters to complete the career Grand Slam, Irish Open and Ryder Cup—McIlroy is looking for ways to sustain his motivation levels.

“Yeah, I think I need to show up at tournaments with enthusiasm every single time; so [that means] playing in the places that I want to play and not feeling like I’m at a tournament because I’m obligated or have to be there but because

I want to be there,” he said.“I’ve been coming [to Dubai] for 20 years. You think about the amount of balls that I’ve hit and the amount of time I’ve spent on the range on my own. That starts to get tedious 20 years into a career. So it’s [all about] trying to find the joy in that. What I really found joy in [recently] at home is playing golf. I spend more time on the golf course than on the practice range nowadays.”

Because there are several career goals that remain.

“Yeah … [an] Olympic medal, Open at St. Andrews, a U.S. Open at one of those old, traditional golf courses, whether it’s Shinnecock this year or Winged Foot or Pebble Beach, Merion,” McIlroy said when asked what was left to achieve.

McIlroy will launch his bid for such from the Hero Dubai Desert Classic this week, where Hatton, Viktor Hovland, Tommy Fleetwood, Patrick Reed and Dustin Johnson are among the stars in the field.

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#WELCOME BACK — Rory McIlroy says he would be ready to welcome LIV golfers back to the PGA Tour including Bryson DeChambeau without further penalties.

“I think they’ve already paid their consequence. They’ve made the money but they’ve paid their consequence in terms of… pic.twitter.com/3vnbStwbpY

— NUCLR GOLF (@NUCLRGOLF) January 2, 2026

“I think they’ve [LIV players] already paid their consequence. They’ve made the money but they’ve paid their consequence in terms of the reputation and some of the things they’ve lost by going over there,” McIlroy said. “If it made the overall tour stronger to have Bryson DeChambeau back and whoever else, I would be okay with it. But it’s not just me, and I recognise that not everyone is in my position. It would be up to the collective group of PGA Tour members to make that decision.”

McIlroy had plenty more to say about LIV Golf in the segment on The Overlap, which you can watch below.

“Maybe it’s just that I’m too much of a traditionalist to get it, but it just doesn’t seem to have anything,” McIlroy continued. “They were coming into the game saying, ‘We’re going to be different, we’re going to be this, we’re going to be that,’ and it’s not … Even the fact they’ve now switched from 54 holes to 72 holes to get OWGR points, so it’s like you’re just doing what everyone else is doing. So what’s different, apart from the money?”

Those are strong words, but they’re mostly in keeping with McIlroy’s stance one LIV Golf since its inception. His comments on DeChambeau, however, represent something of a U-Turn for the five-time major champ. Partly because of his previous disagreements with DeChambeau, and partly because of his previously stated belief that LIV Golf pros should not be allowed to waltz back into a PGA Tour locker room without some sort of recompense.

“There still has to be consequences to actions,” McIlroy told reporters shortly after the PGA Tour and PIF announced their now largely defunct “framework agreement” back in 2023.

“The people who left the PGA Tour irreparably harmed this tour, started litigation against it. We can’t just welcome them back in. That’s not going to happen. I think that was the one thing that Jay was trying to get across yesterday is like, guys, we’re not just going to bring these guys back in and pretend like nothing has happened. That is not going to happen.”

So why the about-face? McIlroy has been known to waffle a bit, but this seems like a significant sea change.

The cynical answer is that he smells blood in the water and is trying to further unsettle the PGA Tour’s rival league. Brooks Koepka just fled LIV Golf with one year left on his deal in a shocking move, while DeChambeau’s contract expires at the end of 2026. McIlory knows that if the PGA Tour rolls out the red carpet for DeChambeau and woos back one of golf’s biggest stars, that it may be the final tee in LIV’s coffin. The charitable answer is that he’s simply had a change of heart. Let bygones be bygones. LIV and let LIV.

Time will tell how much of this McIlroy truly means, but for now it’s another irresistible morsel of PGA Tour-LIV Golf drama. Say what you want, but deep down, we’ll all miss it when its gone.

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On Wednesday, Rory McIlroy called LIV’s move to expand to 72-hole events “peculiar” and wondered if it would even help the Saudi-backed league achieve its goal of gaining Official World Golf Ranking status. And on Thursday, one of McIlroy’s former Ryder Cup teammates jabbed back.

Thanks to our friends at Bunkered for picking up on Lee Westwood’s comments on the matter. The former World No. 1 appeared on the talkSPORT Breakfast Show to discuss LIV’s format change. And when he was asked about Rory’s response, he didn’t hold back.

“I don’t know. I don’t pay too much attention to what Rory says,” Westwood said. “He’ll change his mind for next week.”

Ouch.

“I think [OWGR points] is one of the angles behind it,” Westwood added. “I think there were a few different things. Some of the guys focused their whole season around the major championships and playing 54 holes was putting them at a bit of a disadvantage.

“I think they wanted to play 72 holes – that represented more the major championship format. But world rankings is one of the things on LIV’s mind. I don’t know whether it’s in the criteria or not because there’s 54-hole tournaments that got world ranking points before.

“But I think the boxes that you need to tick with the world rankings, 72 holes probably helps that.”

RELATED: Rory McIlroy gives very reasonable response regarding who is the longer hitter in this week’s bombers pairing

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