Rory McIlroy is not so sure that all the upcoming PGA Tour changes will actually make it that much better - and fears some decent tournaments will become "a glorified Korn Ferry event" under the new two-tier system.
The Grand Slam winner believes LIV Golf "created this false economy" within the sport, with the PGA Tour forced to react by increasing prize money and creating Signature Events in order to keep its best players.
Now LIV Golf is searching for funding to continue, with any new iteration certain to have a big drop in prize money - but despite that the PGA Tour has seemingly no intention of dropping it's prize money structure.
So with LIV's big-money threat lessened and the atmosphere calmer, McIlroy can't help wondering if the old PGA Tour system wasn't actually so bad after all.
"LIV created this false economy where we had to up prize funds and had to cut fields and try to support the top players and all that stuff," said McIlroy at the US Open.
"Which I think needed to happen because that was the only way to retain talent at the time, but now that LIV looks like it's less of a threat, I think the old ways of the PGA Tour weren't actually that bad."
"Now that LIV looks like less of a threat, I think the old ways of the PGA Tour weren't actually that bad."Rory McIlroy reflects on upcoming PGA Tour schedule changes, calling the Track Two tournaments "glorified Korn Ferry events." pic.twitter.com/WTJAm2HpxfJune 16, 2026
McIlroy is "not in those rooms" within the PGA Tour as decisions are being made about the future, in a big change to the height of the LIV Golf saga when Jay Monahan seemingly sent him out to be the organisation's big defender.
Now McIlroy is looking at it from slightly afar, and says he's starting to think the way the PGA Tour was setup before all the LIV Golf wars could have actually been the best.
"I play my schedule, and I'll continue to play my schedule, which is getting less and less as the years go on," he insisted.
"Yeah, it's funny. I think, as they've done all this work, you start to realize that the way the Tour was before LIV came along was actually pretty good. It was a pretty good structure, and everything sort of worked pretty well."
McIlroy warns of 'glorified Korn Ferry Tour' events
One of McIlroy's main concerns is with some current events on the PGA Tour seeing their status reduced under the new two-tier system set to be deployed by Brian Rolapp.
The six-time Major champion cites the recent RBC Canadian Open as a prime example, with his worry that such a historic national open, along with other similar events, could be diminished unless it receives a huge sponsorship boost.
"I guess like at an event - I guess, just recency, an event like last week, the Canadian Open, potentially going to one of these track twos," McIlroy added.
"Track two is a glorified Korn Ferry event. That's what track two is going to be. So I don't think the Canadian Open should be one of those.
"I just think there's going to be certain events that might lose their stature if a sponsor doesn't pony up $30 million. So that's the tough thing."
