Irish golfer evokes Belfast Agreement when speaking about how golf can make peace in a divided time
Rory McIlroy may have – to the surprise of some, among them Shane Lowry – taken to the microphone after the recent Zurich Classic win, with Don’t Stop Believin’ the tune of choice, but the Northern Irishman’s involvement in the game of musical chairs on the PGA Tour’s influential policy board has seen him miss out on regaining a place at the table.
With Webb Simpson, who’d previously indicated he would step aside, opting to remain on the board, and McIlroy – who left last year – initially moving to replace him, but now stepping back to being a player, that space is no longer free.
Still, speaking ahead of the Wells Fargo Championship, a tournament he has won three times in his career, McIlroy – in an indication of how seriously he still takes ongoing negotiations at tour level and on the wider scheme of things in healing wounds between the PGA Tour and LIV – evoked the thoughts and deeds behind the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement of 1998 as evidence that ways to golfing peace can be found.
McIlroy admitted to being “impatient” at the lack of progress, which first prompted a possible return to the board. “I think we’ve got this window of opportunity to get it done, because both sides from a business perspective I wouldn’t say need to get it done, but it makes sense.
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“I sort of liken it to like when Northern Ireland went through the peace process in the ‘90s and the Good Friday Agreement, neither side was happy. Catholics weren’t happy, Protestants weren’t happy, but it brought peace and then you just sort of learn to live with whatever has been negotiated, right?
“That was in 1998 or whatever it was and 20, 25, 30 years ahead, my generation doesn’t know any different. It’s just this is what it’s always been like and we’ve never known anything but peace. That’s sort of how I [see it], my little, I guess, way of trying to think about it and trying to make both sides see that there could be a compromise here.
“Yeah, it’s probably not going to feel great for either side, but if it’s a place where the game of golf starts to thrive again and we can all get back together, then I think that’s ultimately a really good thing,” said McIlroy, his voice coming from outside of the policy board.
On the motivation that has driven him to uncover a solution to the fractured state of men’s professional golf, McIlroy added: “I would say that golf and the PGA Tour has been so good to me over the years. I just feel like it’s my obligation or duty to try to give back and try to set the next generation of players up like we were set up by the previous generation.
“So Jack, Arnie, the guys that really helped build the PGA Tour and helped it thrive, and Tiger obviously, to get it to where it is today, I think there’s a responsibility with every generation to try to leave the Tour, leave the place that you’re playing in a bit of a better spot than it was before. That’s what it’s about.”
McIlroy is back with a scorecard in hand for the first time since he teamed up with Lowry to win the two-man Zurich Classic tournament, a win – the 25th of his career on the US circuit – that could enable him to kick on in his quest for further Majors, starting with next week’s US PGA Championship at Valhalla, where he won in 2014.
Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry celebrate.
Certainly, the feelgood factor of that win in New Orleans and, enjoying a week’s break after that four-week stretch of tournaments, along with returning to Quail Hollow where he has won three career Wells Fargo tournaments, has a renewed sense of contentment with the state of his game.
“I think [the win] freed me up a little bit. It’s a different win, you’re doing it with a partner and you’re only having to hit half the shots on a Sunday to get it done. I think it did a world of good for both of us, for Shane and I, just in terms of setting us up for the rest of the season, giving us some confidence kn
