Rory McIlroy thinks the next phase of LIV Golf could bring change, and not necessarily the kind its backers want. Speaking on Wednesday ahead of the Amgen Irish Open, McIlroy said he expects some players to leave the circuit after LIV Golf filed for bankruptcy protection and outlined plans to relaunch as LIV 2.0 next year.
That is a notable shift in tone for a league that has spent heavily to build its roster since its launch in 2021. LIV Golf has burned through $5bn over the past five years, and in April Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund said it would cut funding at the end of the 2026 season. Against that backdrop, McIlroy's Rory Mcilroy Liv Golf Predictions are less about one quote than about whether the league's revised model will still feel attractive enough to keep its stars in place.
Why McIlroy thinks movement is possible
McIlroy did not pretend to have inside knowledge of how individual players will react, but he made the financial logic clear. In his view, LIV 1.0 looked more appealing at the start than LIV 2.0 may look now from a financial standpoint. That matters because the original sell was built on guaranteed money and a fresh break from the old order. If the new version offers less certainty or less upside, the pitch becomes harder to sell.
He also suggested the route back to the DP World Tour and PGA Tour may not be simple for those who leave. He has warned before that returning could be difficult, but he also said the inclusion of LIV players going forward would make the DP World Tour stronger. That is a fairly pragmatic position: the sport benefits when the best players are spread across fewer silos, even if the politics remain messy.
The players most likely to watch closely
There is already some evidence that not everyone is ready to move on quickly. On Tuesday, Jon Rahm said he had a contract with LIV Golf that he was more than willing to fulfil. That does not mean he will stay forever, but it does show that some players are still willing to treat LIV as a long-term commitment rather than a short-term experiment.
The broader question is whether the relaunch changes the competitive balance enough to matter on the DP World Tour and PGA Tour over the next five months. If players begin reassessing their options, tournaments such as the Amgen Irish Open and BMW PGA Championship could feel the effects quickly. More quality in those fields would strengthen the product, but it would also underline how unstable the LIV project has become.
McIlroy's point, then, is not simply that players may leave. It is that LIV Golf's newest version may have to work harder to hold onto them. A league that started as a disruption is now trying to survive a reset, and the people who joined for certainty may be the first to notice when that certainty starts to fade.
