Rory McIlroy believes rival tour is ‘not so super league’ for younger players

McIlroy has made no secret of the fact that he will not join a potential rival to the PGA Tour, which is being spearheaded by former world number one Greg Norman

Rory McIlroy believes younger players would be taking a massive risk by joining what he labelled a “not so Super League” for the older generation.

McIlroy has made no secret of the fact that he will not join a potential rival to the PGA Tour, which is being spearheaded by former world number one Greg Norman and backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.

Players are being courted with multi-million-pound contract offers and Lee Westwood, 48, admitted last year it would be a “no-brainer” to sign such a deal at this stage of his career, while Phil Mickelson admits the threat of the SGL has given players “leverage” to squeeze more money out of the PGA Tour.

Asked in a press conference ahead of the Genesis Invitational about the Super League, McIlroy interjected with a smile: “Not so Super League.” 

Pressed on whether he was curious to see which players would sign up for the breakaway circuit, McIlroy added: “I don’t know if I’m curious, but I guess I’m intrigued who would... certainly for the younger guys it just seems a massive risk.

“I can maybe make sense of it for the guys that are getting to the latter stages of their career, for sure.

“I don’t think that’s what a rival golf league is really going to want, is it? They don’t want some sort of league that’s like a pre-Champions Tour.

“I understand the financial part of it for guys that are later on in their career. You look at the people that have already said no; (Jon) Rahm, number one in the world, Collin Morikawa, myself.

“Like you’ve got the top players in the world are saying no, so that has to tell you something.”