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Rory McIlroy has urged his protégé to abandon his impending move to LIV Golf, warning Tom McKibbin that the $5m (£4m) fee is not worth the sacrifice.
McKibbin, 22, is yet to confirm the move to the Saudi-funded tour, but the deal is believed to be all but done with the LIV season kicking off in Riyadh in three weeks.
McKibbin is a member of the same Belfast golf club as McIlroy – Holywood – and from a young age he looked to his fellow Ulster as a mentor. But short of an eleventh-hour U-turn, he’ll go against McIlroy’s advice. If he jumps ship – and he is expected to be part of Jon Rahm’s Legion XIII team, alongside Tyrrell Hatton – McIlroy admitted he would be “disappointed”.
“As soon as he got the offer, he called me,” McIlroy said. “I’ve known Tom since I was 10 and spoke to him several times in December to get a sense of what he was thinking and what he was going to do. . All I could do was give my point of view.
“I really like Tom as a person, as a player. I think he has a lot of potential. I told him, “If I were in your place, I would make a different choice than the one you are considering.”
“Personally, for me, it would be a bit disappointing if that were to happen, but I’ve made it perfectly clear: ‘I’m not going to stand in your way if you have to make the decision that you feel you have to make for yourself.’ .’ But at the same time, I feel like he’s giving up a lot to not really enjoy it.”
McIlroy cited the possibility of making his Ryder Cup debut in New York in September as one of the “sacrifices” – it would be almost impossible to automatically qualify for the European team if McKibbin was on LIV’s books . But at the heart of McIlroy’s concerns is the fact that McKibbin will decline the PGA Tour card he earned by finishing so high in the DP World Tour order of merit last year.
“Working so hard to get your card in the United States, something he did, to achieve that goal last year, it was great,” McIlroy said. “I think about what he’s potentially sacrificing and giving up with access to the majors, a potential place in the Ryder Cup… I don’t think anything is official yet but if I was at his place and I had his potential, which I think I was before, I would not make that decision.
“There is still a lot of money to be made on the PGA Tour”
McIlroy is clearly not impressed by the registration fees being discussed. There is a $500,000 guarantee for PGA Tour rookies and record purses this year.
“What I would say is there’s still a lot of money to be made on the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour,” McIlroy said. “There is so much money in the game, and some would say there is too much for the eyes we attract. Whatever the benefit, I don’t think it’s worth sacrificing what it’s potentially going to give up.
“Look, I definitely think he can be a top 10 player in the world, but his rankings won’t show that over the next couple of years if he makes one decision over another.”
McIlroy is not the only Irish legend to question the sagacity of a McKibbin defection. “He’s young and I think he still would have been better off learning to compete and win more in Europe and get a few starts in the States,” Padraig Harrington said. “You’ll make double the money with LIV, but you don’t learn anything.”
The trio play here at Emirates Golf Club in the Hero Dubai Desert Classic which begins on Thursday. If McIlroy were to win, he would be the first DP World Tour player to win the same event three times in a row since Ernie Els at the Heineken Classic 21 years ago.
