Rory McIlroy has questioned LIV Golf’s revamped format after the Saudi-funded breakaway tournament announced it will switch from three rounds to four next year.
LIV organisers are determined that the competition be recognised by the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) in order to further increase its legitimacy and standing in the game, and hope the shift up to 72 holes will be another step on the path to rankings points.
The OWGR initially rejected LIV’s request for rankings points over concerns about the event being a closed shop of 54 players rather than participation being based on merit. There were also concerns about LIV’s team competition affecting performance.
McIlroy, who is preparing to play at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship at Yas Links this week, has been one of LIV’s most outspoken critics, and one point saying he “hated” the tournament, although his stance has softened over time.
Asked what he thought of the shift to four rounds, he said: “I think it's a peculiar move because I think they could have got ranking points with three rounds. I don't think three rounds versus four rounds is what was holding them back.
“It certainly puts them more in line with traditional golf tournaments than what we've all done. It brings them back into not really being a destructor and sort is of falling more in line with what everyone else does. But if that's what they felt they needed to do to get the ranking points, I guess that's what they had to do.
"Yeah, 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. It will be interesting to see how it plays out."
McIlroy is in Abu Dhabi at the start of the DP World Tour’s play-offs with a chance to win the Race to Dubai title for the fourth successive year in a row.
Englishman Marco Penge is McIlroy’s nearest challenger but the world No 2 has a sizeable points lead.
"I know I'm going to have to play well these next couple of weeks but I've got good records here and next week at the Earth Course [Jumeirah Golf Estates] as well.
"I know if I play the way that I know that I can, hopefully everything will work out the right way. Yeah, I'm looking forward to the challenge. I'm looking forward to feeling that again and trying to win another one."
