Rory McIlroy gives opinion on stunning LIV Golf news: "It's a peculiar move"

Masters champion Rory McIlroy says LIV Golf's decision to backtrack on one of their founding principles is a "peculiar move".

LIV Golf announced on 4 November that effective immediately all of their $25m tournaments, apart from the team championship, will be contested over 72 holes.

Since the PIF-backed league was launched in 2022 the breakaway tour has used a 54-hole format with team and individual scores counting.

The unconventional format played a big role in LIV Golf players falling down the world rankings and being frozen out of the men's majors.

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It is thought the drastic format shift - coupled with changes to their promotion and relegation system - will now give LIV the green light for world ranking points.

"I think it's a peculiar move because I think they could have got ranking points with three rounds," McIlroy told reporters before the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.

"I don't think three rounds versus four rounds is what was holding them back."

McIlroy initially led the charge against LIV Golf since its inception, with the golfer the PGA Tour's unofficial spokesman.

He was critical of the ageing European Ryder Cup legends who decamped to LIV and, in June 2023, even said he "hated" the rival league.

His comment came in the wake of a shock armistice that was struck behind his back between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf.

McIlroy's stance has since softened somewhat and the five-time major winner has even been accused of performing a dramatic U-turn.

"It certainly puts them more in line with traditional golf tournaments than what we've all done," McIlroy added.  

"It brings them back into not really being a destructor and sort is of falling more in line with what everyone else does.

"But if that's what they felt they needed to do to get the ranking points, I guess that's what they had to do."

McIlroy said he's not sure if having world ranking points now will benefit LIV as so many players have fallen down the ladder.

Dustin Johnson, who was the top-ranked player in 2021, is now 604th on the list.

McIlroy said: "I think what's hard is you've got the LIV guys, and say potentially they get world rankings, but because their strength of fields are going to be so weak because a lot of the guys have fallen already in the rankings because they have not had ranking points for so long, I don't know if the ranking points are really going to benefit them.

"Yeah, it will be interesting to see how it plays out."

Future schedule changes

McIlroy will look back on 2025 as the best year of his career to date.

He won the coveted Players Championship in March for the third time and backed that up by finally ending his wait for a major championship victory at The Masters.

An Irish Open win followed and in September he helped Europe to a dramatic away victory over the United States at the Ryder Cup.

Going forward, McIlroy has made it clear he wants to play less.

He has moved back to the UK and now resides in the exclusive Wentworth estate in Berkshire.

Asked about his 2026 schedule, McIlroy said: "I think I'll play the same amount of tournaments on the DP World Tour, if not more, but I've alluded to the fact that I'm going to play a little bit less just throughout the year.

"[I am] really [going to] prioritise the major championships and a few of the other bigger events.

"But the world of golf does a really good job of keeping you - I describe it as keeping you on the hamster wheel.

"And sometimes it's nice to get off that hamster wheel and do things your own way."

He added: "Look, I'm not getting any younger. If I want to play competitively for another ten years like Justin Rose has, for example, I have to remember that I'm not 23 anymore and I can't play that schedule forever.

"So I think to try to have the longevity that I want to have, I'm going to have to cut back my schedule a little bit over these next few years to make sure I stay injury-free and I play up until the point that I want to."