Rory McIlroy's Evolving Role as One of Golf's Biggest Ambassadors

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00:00 (upbeat music)

00:02 The evolution that Rory's done

00:05 because he's just gone in so many different directions,

00:07 it seems like in terms of thought processes

00:09 of being this guy that was all the way out there

00:12 for the tour and kind of really strongly rebutting Liv.

00:17 And then when the deal was announced last year,

00:22 feeling betrayed in a lot of ways,

00:24 we saw that on Full Swing,

00:26 we saw that in a number of different kind of places

00:28 where it was like, well, why did I waste a year

00:30 of my life on that?

00:30 And also suffer a loss of quality in the golf

00:33 that I was playing if you were just gonna turn on

00:35 and do a deal with them.

00:36 And then we see him kind of retreat,

00:39 remove himself from the policy board,

00:40 say I'm gonna focus on other places.

00:42 And then we see a series of on the record,

00:45 public interviews and statements he made

00:47 where he's warming up to the idea of maybe not Liv,

00:50 but just guys going and being okay with it.

00:52 I think it's more of he warmed up to realizing

00:55 that these guys weren't stopping, right?

00:57 Like this wasn't, like their pockets were deep.

01:01 - Yeah, and why, and just to tee this up for you

01:04 is just like, now he's at a place

01:05 where he wants back on the policy board.

01:07 And I guess my very open-ended question there is like,

01:10 what do you make of all this from just Rory's last year

01:14 and a half, maybe two years plus of where his head's gone

01:19 and the statements he's made on the future of the pro game?

01:23 - You know, I understand from a career standpoint

01:28 and all of the PR stuff that he had gone through,

01:32 being the face and then having that all happen.

01:36 But it's gotta be a little frustrating

01:40 for the guys in the room that are like,

01:42 okay, we've been taking these phone calls

01:45 for how many months now since the,

01:47 when did he get off the policy board?

01:50 Because I'd heard that he got off the policy board

01:53 at the Canadian Open.

01:55 I heard he said, I was done.

01:56 But I heard that he was--

01:57 - I think it was a little later than that.

01:59 - I think it was officially at the end of the year,

02:02 like in the fall, but that he'd almost had left it

02:06 in an acting capacity around--

02:08 - 'Cause Jordan took it.

02:09 Jordan took his spot.

02:10 - Exactly, and I think it sounds like you know better

02:12 than I did.

02:13 What I'd heard was Jordan was kind of working his way

02:16 into that role from that point on.

02:19 - Yeah, 'cause Jordan didn't,

02:23 he, I mean, dude, he's just had his second baby.

02:25 He doesn't have time for this,

02:27 but he also is a very smart dude,

02:29 probably one of the smarter guys that I know.

02:31 He would be a CEO if he wasn't a professional golfer.

02:34 That's how impressive he is when you talk to him

02:37 just about stuff like this.

02:38 He understands it, not to say that he should be

02:41 running the tour, but he's a good guy to have

02:43 on the policy board during this time.

02:46 But man, Tiger, Patrick Cantlay, Jordan, Adam Scott,

02:51 all of these players that have taken all of these calls

02:56 and been a part of the SSG and vetting the equity

03:00 and getting the tour in a position to not continue

03:03 to lose members, and now Rory comes in and is like,

03:06 "Hey, here's the ideas."

03:08 Like, no idea's a bad idea, and these guys are like,

03:11 "Dude, we've been here."

03:14 Like, you wanna know the run of show

03:16 of how these things go?

03:17 But maybe, looking at this from a different point of view,

03:22 it's like, maybe you do need somebody, a disruptor now,

03:26 to be like, "Okay, this is where we should go,"

03:29 and somebody that should be like, "All right, guys,

03:32 "let's move this thing to exactly kind of the things

03:36 "that we've been talking about, which is make changes

03:39 "and make the tournaments that are being played matter,

03:42 "put 'em in places that make sense,

03:45 "make the playoffs make sense.

03:48 "You know, let's go to Chicago every year.

03:51 "Why are we at East like every single tour championship?

03:55 "Why are we going to Pebble Beach for the tour championship?"

03:57 Like, let's think outside the box.

03:59 We have some of the best golf courses in the world,

04:02 and we find a way to not figure out a way

04:05 to go to our biggest markets, too.

04:07 It's just, to me, you just have to look at it

04:09 from a big-picture thing,

04:10 and maybe Roy's our big-picture guy

04:13 after we had all of these guys handle all the business

04:17 to get us into a point toward these conversations now

04:20 of let's think outside the box, let's look at the PGA Tour,

04:24 not only for next year,

04:25 but what's it gonna look like 20 years from now?

04:27 (upbeat music)

04:30 [MUSIC]

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