Rory McIlroy's return to the golf course has produced a lot of reactions among the golf community. After his historic Masters victory, the 35-year-old decided to take a week off, but now he's playing at the Zurich Classic in partnership with Shane Lowry.
During the press conference, the 35-year-old golfer emphasized how important the Zurich Classic is to him, adding that winning as a team is more fun for him.
Ryan Lavner, a well-known golf analyst, believes that this is a green light for the leaders of LIV Golf. Namely, LIV emphasizes the team aspect, while the PGA Tour does not offer many such events, except for the Zurich Classic.
Lavner believes that LIV boss, Yassir Al-Rumayyan, is now on the move.
“I watched the press conference on Wednesday on the feed that the PGA Tour provides and I couldn’t help but chuckle because Rory, to your point, said that it’s more fun to win as a team. And somewhere, in Saudi Arabia or elsewhere, Yasir’s ears had to have perked up because he and the rest of the folks with LIV, they’ve got to be thinking we’ve been saying this since 2022. ‘Team golf is where it’s at, it’s the future, it’s so much fun, it’s a brotherhood, there’s camaraderie, it’s more fun to win as a team’,” he said, as quoted by The Golfing Gazette.
Lavner's predictions
Lavner made predictions regarding Rory's answers, believing that during the elaboration, the Northern Irishman would point out that this is a unique event, significantly different from everything else. Lavner believes that McIlroy would say that this is a much better experience, sharing his victory with a lot of people.
However, he feels that McIlroy is not the type of golfer who wants to do this 14 times a year, believing that Rory would rather play in the Zurich Classic and Ryder Cup.
It is really hard to imagine a golfer who was LIV's main opponent becoming part of the controversial Tour. Although it has been talked about for years, such a scenario seems unrealistic at the moment.
