ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — Rory McIlroy has described LIV Golf’s decision to expand its events to 72 holes as “peculiar.”
The Saudi-funded breakaway circuit will align itself more with golf’s traditional tours by moving from three rounds to four next year.
The format switch could boost LIV’s bid to be recognized by the Official World Golf Ranking, which is critical because the four majors use its listing to help determine their fields.
The OWGR rejected LIV’s request for world ranking points when the league started, mainly over concerns about it being a closed shop of the same 54 players all year, except for alternates replacing injured players, and that team competition could affect the integrity of the individual competition since it was based on the same scores.
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McIlroy has been outspoken about LIV’s disruption of the golf world, so he was asked for his view of the change to 72 holes at a news conference Wednesday ahead of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.
“I think it’s a peculiar move,” McIlroy said, “because I think they could have got ranking points with three rounds. I don’t think three rounds vs. four rounds is what was holding them back.
“It certainly puts them more in line with traditional golf tournaments than what we’ve all done,” he added. “It brings them back into not really being a destructor and sort of is 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 questioned how many ranking points will be on offer at LIV Golf events.
“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,” McIlroy said. “Yeah, it will be interesting to see how it plays out.”
McIlroy is playing the Abu Dhabi tournament for a 12th time. He has nine top-three finishes but has never won.
The Northern Irishman tops the seasonlong Race to Dubai standings with two events to play, and a win this week would push him closer to a seventh title in what was the Order of Merit — one off Colin Montgomerie’s record haul.
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