McIlroy said that while he was “not as of yet” able to confirm his return to the policy board, he agreed to speak in ‘hypotheticals’ about such a prospect – and duly elaborated on the rationale behind his expected move to rejoin.
“I think I can be helpful,” he said.
“I don’t think there’s been much progress made in the last eight months, and I was hopeful that there would be. I think I could be helpful to the process.
“But only if people want me involved, I guess. When Webb and I talked and he talked about potentially coming off the board, I said, look, if it was something that other people wanted, I would gladly take that seat, and that was the conversation that we had.
“But yeah, I think that’s the whole reason. I feel like I can be helpful. I feel like I care a lot, and I have some pretty good experience and good connections within the game and sort of around the wider sort of ecosystem and everything that’s going on.
“But at the end of the day, it’s not quite up to me to just come back on the board. There’s a process that has to be followed.
“But I’m willing to do it if that’s what people want, I guess.”
McIlroy: Everyone needs to put lingering ‘hard feelings’ aside
McIlroy joined the Player Advisory Council in 2019 and then served on the PGA Tour’s policy board from 2021 to last November, when he resigned after citing concerns over his time and energy he had to commit to the role.
The four-time major winner has since performed something of a U-turn on his position towards LIV and the players who have defected from the established tours over the past two years – admitting ahead of the new season that he had been “too judgemental”.
