Rory McIlroy rejects Liverpool owner's suggestion with blunt 'No' response in private chat
Liverpool owner Henry has become heavily invloved in investing in the PGA Tour since the rise of PIF backed LIV.
Rory McIlroy shut down any suggestion of player ownership within the PGA Tour, after the four-time major champion met with Liverpool owner John Henry over the American's Strategic Sports Group's (SSG) decision to partner with the Tour.
Fenway Sports Group's Henry ventured into the world of professional golf earlier this year, after SSG invested $1.5 billion into the PGA Tour.
The Group's investment came after the PGA Tour announced its intention to do a merger deal with LIV and the PIF of Saudi Arabia last year.
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Over one year on from the initial announcement of a framework agreement between the PGA Tour and PIF, a finalised deal is yet to be completed. Henry and SSG meanwhile swooped in at the beginning of 2024, pledging billions of dollars into the American-based circuit amid months of little progress with their Saudi counterparts.
This was not Henry's only branch into the golfing world, though, after FSG announced their backing in Boston Common, one of the six franchises taking part in the soon-to-be-launched innovative golf league, TGL. McIlroy - who is a co-founder of TGL alongside Tiger Woods - was confirmed as one of the four Boston Common players and was hosted at Fenway Park by Henry on the back of the investment.
Per the Boston Globe, Henry had asked McIlroy whether he felt like he 'owned' the Tour to which the Northern Irishman bluntly responded: "No." It was reported that days later, Henry and his SSG partners hosted the Tour's player directors - that included McIlroy and Woods - in a bid to pitch to them their plans with the PGA Tour.
SSG were not alone though, with three other bidders pitching to the Tour, before it was later decided that it was Henry and co who had won over the golfing elite. McIlroy has since departed the Tour's policy board, having resigned his player director post last November.
He did however claim that he would have voted in favour of the SSG investment after welcoming the new partnership back in February. “I definitely would have voted for it," he commented. "I think the group that has been assembled to invest into, well, PGA Tour Enterprises, I guess, not the PGA Tour, but PGA Tour Enterprises.
"It’s a wonderful group of people that have got tons of experience in sports ownership over the past 30 years. I’ve gotten to know those guys pretty well, especially the Fenway consortium. We worked with them to sell the majority share of my TGL team to them, so we’ve worked pretty closely for the last year or so. They’re a great group of people and have the best intentions for the game of golf, which is great. Yeah, I felt it was good news.”
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