Golf World No.2 Rory McIlroy has made a strong case for India as a destination for an elite tournament if a “global tour somehow comes to fruition”.
The four-time Major champion’s comments were made under the backdrop of the PGA Tour and DP World Tour’s plans to complete a framework agreement by March-April for the proposed merger with the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund-bankrolled LIV Golf rebel tour.
McIlroy spoke to the media on Wednesday morning at the Emirates Golf Club, where he again reiterated his desire for the future of golf to go global, with India very much in the frame, Golf Monthly reports.
“Absolutely. I spoke to Dr. Munjal [Hero MotoCorp CEO] on the course about it today,” the publication quoted McIlroy as having said on the prospect of elite golf going to India.
“You know, if this global tour somehow comes to fruition in the next few years, could you imagine bringing the best 70 or 80 golfers in the world to India for a tournament or, you know, that – I think would change the game and the perception of the game in a country like that.
“So again, there’s so much opportunity out there to go global with it, and I’ve said this for the last few months, but golf is at an inflection point, and if golf doesn’t do it now, I fear that it will never do it and we’ll sort of have this fractured landscape forever. As I said I hope it all works out.”
“We’ve talked about it,” he said on whether Dr Munjal has invited him to play in India.
“But look, with how the golf calendar is at the minute – and that’s the other thing that needs to be looked at. There’s so many different golf tournaments that happen at different times, and it’s going to be very hard for everything to piece together but it’s a country that I’ve never been to and one that I would like to visit at some point in my life.”
India currently hosts the men’s and women’s Hero Indian Opens on the DP World Tour and Ladies European Tour and is home to some promising players like Aditi Ashok, Shubhankar Sharma, Dikshar Dagar and Gaganjeet Bhullar, as well as LIV Golf’s Anirban Lahiri.
