Proposed changes to the PGA Tour that would come into effect in 2028 don’t have a fan in Rory McIlroy.
The World No. 2 spoke at the U.S. Open’s media day on Tuesday and decried the idea of splitting the tour into Track One and Track Two events with players on the lower track fighting to compete on the top track in something akin to a promotion-relegation system.
Under the proposal, the Track One schedule would include the four majors, the Players Championship and 15 to 18 other events. The events would have fields of 120 to 130 golfers. As part of the proposal, the top 90 players would retain their Track One status for the following season.
A vote on the proposal could come as soon as June 22.
A two-time Canadian Open winner, McIlroy cited that tournament in particular as one that could end up being moved to Track Two, something that doesn’t sit well with him. Canada’s national open has been played since 1904 and is currently the tour’s only regular Canadian stop.
“An event like last week, the Canadian Open, potentially going to one of these Track Twos? Track Two is like a glorified Korn Ferry event,” McIlroy said. “Like that’s what Track Two is going to be. I don’t think the Canadian Open should be one of those. And yeah, I just think there’s going to be certain events that might lose their stature if a sponsor doesn’t pony up $30 million.”
McIlroy says the current state of the PGA makes him nostalgic for the pre-LIV Golf days.
“You start to realize the way the tour was before LIV came along was actually pretty good,” the 37-year-old McIlroy said. “It was a pretty good structure and everything sorta worked pretty well. LIV created this false economy where we had to up prize funds and 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. But now that LIV looks like it’s less of a threat, I think, as I said, the old ways of the PGA Tour weren’t actually that bad.”
The winner of the past two Masters, McIlroy is seeking a second U.S. Open title, having previously claimed the tournament in 2011 at the Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, MD. McIlroy will play with Tommy Fleetwood and Ludvig Åberg in his opening round on Thursday from Shinnecock Hills on Long Island.
The tournament’s defending champion is J.J. Spaun.
