Rory McIlroy hits out at LIV Golf for creating 'false economy' in golf

Rory McIlroy has hit out at LIV Golf for creating a false economy in the sport and the impact it has had on game.The Northern Irishman has been openly critical of the breakaway tournament for a number of years, with the Saudi-backed competition appearing to be running out of funding.Speaking to the media ahead of the US Open, McIlroy said: It's funny that as they've done all this work, you start to realise that the way the PGA Tour was before LIV came along was actually pretty good - it was a pretty good structure, and everything sort of worked pretty well.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, which I think needed to happen because that was the only way to retain talent at the time. TRENDING Stories Videos Your Say 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.McIlroy, who claimed his second green jacket earlier this year, discussed the proposed changes for the PGA Tour schedule.He said: An event like last week, the Canadian Open, is potentially going to one of these track twos. 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 30million (£22.35million), so that's the tough thing.LATEST SPORTS NEWSWorld Cup 2026 day six: All the latest as England suffer huge injury setback ahead of Croatia matchSerena and Venus Williams to play at Wimbledon as wildcards grantedUK pubs fear missing out on bumper-sales as devastating impact of North America World Cup laid bareI'm not in those rooms. I don't know. I play my schedule, and I'll continue to play my schedule, which is getting less and less as the years go on.Shinnecock Hills, the host venue for the US Open this week, sparked major backlash in 2018 for the course quality.McIlroy spoke positively of the New York-based venue ahead of this week, saying: It's a great golf course. If everything going the way everyone wants it in terms of weather and set-up, I think it's the best championship test in the country.I think it tests all aspects of the game - driving, iron play, and you need to have your wits about you around the greens. It's a lot of strategy and thoughtfulness.It's a wonderful golf course and looking forward to the test that it's going to provide this week.McIlroy continued: I think as the week goes on, you have the ability for the course to get firmer and faster but - with this golf course - only to a certain point.It doesn't need to get that fast to play incredibly difficult and challenging. Thursday and Friday is difficult because there's two waves but I think, on the weekend, there's times to put a lot of water on the golf course early and let it dry out as the day goes on.The Northern Irishman, who is grouped up with Ryder Cup teammates Tommy Fleetwood and Ludvig Aberg for the first two rounds, expects the European players to perform this week.He said: There's a lot of talented golfers coming out of Europe and out of the UK.Aaron [Rai] has definitely like forged his own path and done it his own way. It was amazing to see him do what he what he did at Aronimink.Obviously a historic start to the major season for golfers from that part of the world. I would say this is more of a UK, European style of test than the first two majors at Augusta and Aronimink.It wouldn't be a surprise to see a few players from the UK and Europe in contention on Sunday.Our Standards: The GB News Editorial Charter