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The Northern Irishman, competing at this week's
PGA Tour event in Charlotte, North Carolina, likened the
proposed rival circuit to European soccer's breakaway Super
League project that spectacularly collapsed last week before it
could get off the ground.
"You go back to what happened last week in Europe with the
European Super League in football," said McIlroy, who has nearly
$55 million in career earnings on the PGA Tour. "People can see
it for what it is, which is a money grab."
McIlroy was speaking a day after a report in Britain's Daily
Telegraph detailed a renewed Saudi Arabian-led plan to create a
breakaway rival circuit that promises lavish payouts to those
who agreed to join.
According to The Telegraph, players have been offered between
$30 million-$100 million to take part in SGL, but the PGA Tour
has threatened members with instant suspension and a lifetime
ban if they join the breakaway.
McIlroy, who said he was first approached by the SGL in 2014
when it was known as the Premier Golf League, has spoken out
against it before.
"I think the top players in the game, I'm just speaking my own
personal beliefs, like I'm playing this game to try to cement my
place in history and my legacy and to win major
championships," said McIlroy.
"Golf has been very good to me obviously over the years by
playing in Europe starting off, coming over to the PGA Tour and
playing here. I honestly don't think there's a better structure
in place in golf, and I don't think there will be."
World number two Justin Thomas said that while other golfers at
different stages in their careers may feel differently, he has
no desire to give up his pursuit of major victories on the PGA
Tour.
"For me, I personally am about being No. 1 in the world and
winning as many majors as I can and winning as many tournaments
as I can and doing historical things on the PGA Tour," Thomas
said at Quail Hollow Club, where play begins on Thursday.
"If I was to go do that, then all those things go down the drain
and I can't do that."
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto; Additional reporting by
Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru, editing by Ed Osmond)
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