ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — Rory McIlroy wanted nothing to do with speaking to the written press on the eve of the DP World Tour’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. But the Belfast lad did give a 2½-minute interview to BBC Northern Ireland on the subject of, you guessed it, the symbolism of the men behind the June 6 framework agreement that purports to be the forerunner of a long-awaited coming together of professional golf between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf League being paired together in the first round of the pro-am event.

So it is that, Thursday at Carnoustie, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and his professional partner, Billy Horschel, will tee-up alongside Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the man who runs Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, and his partner, LIV Golf League player Dean Burmester.

“There’s no better place than the Home of Golf to get everyone together and talking,” said McIlroy, who, with his father Gerry, will compete alongside Al- Rumayyan/Burmester on the Old Course in Saturday’s third round. “I think it’s a great thing and a good sign that Jay and Yasir are playing together. Obviously, we have quite a big contingent here from LIV playing in the event [14 total]. What [tournament chairman] Johann Rupert is trying to do is bring the world of golf back together a bit, or force us all together. Whatever, he’s trying to do that.”

What this all actually means in real terms remains to be seen, of course. But McIlroy’s enthusiasm, as so often is the case, is infectious.

“It’ll be good,” he continued. “It’s certainly a step in the right direction. Time will tell if things go the way I want them to, or if they go the way a lot of people want them to go. But there have been a few good steps along the way and this is one of them. It’s a matter of trying to get all the different constituents involved. The sponsors want the same thing. Everyone just wants to see the game come back together and have all the top players playing together. All to make it a bit more global as well. A lot of people are on board with that.”

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Also in that camp is Horschel. The newly-minted two-time BMW PGA champion has long been a proponent of a world-wide circuit, and he wasn’t slow to underline that message while visiting the Home of Golf.

“I do believe that there’s been goodwill on both sides to try to make a deal happen over the last 18 months or so,” he said. “It may not move as quickly as people want. There’s a lot of complicated things to figure out, and there’s a lot of things behind the scenes that the public just don’t understand, that they can’t comment on. But I figured about a month ago when I heard Yasir may be playing in this, there’s a good chance that Jay and I would be paired up one day with them.

“For the betterment of the game of golf, I do believe the majority of players on the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour and on LIV, I think we want to figure out some way that we can all make this work,” Horschel continued. “We need to get back to really focusing on golf and not the politics side of everything. If this all works out, I hope that the DP World Tour will be looked after. We need to create a pyramid. Let’s call it the World Tour. Then you have the PGA Tour and DP World Tour and underneath it. Then you have the Challenge Tour and Korn Ferry Tour underneath those. All with a filter system that works up and a filter system that works down.”

PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan will play with Billy Horschel in the pro-am portion of the Dunhill Links Championship this week in Scotland. They will be paired with PIF director Yasir Al-Rumayyan during the first round Thursday at Carnoustie.

David Cannon

McIlroy didn’t go into so much detail, but his sentiments are clearly similar. Like Horschel, he underlined the need for patience. Although he wasn’t above putting a deadline on a solution.

“It’s just a matter of working through the various complicated issues that there are,” said the four-time major champion. “I think we all understand it’s not easy. Change for the most part is resisted because it is such a tradition sport. But at this time, I think change is needed to drive the game forward. Hopefully we can get to that point.

“I hope we can get there soon, definitely before year’s end,” he continued. “It’s going too slow for the people who follow golf. But in the business world deals of this size take time. We’re talking about billions of dollars changing hands and different jurisdictions like the U.S., the Middle East and Europe. It’s a pretty complicated deal. I think we’ll know a lot more by year’s end. So that’s three months to get it done. Then we can start 2025 with enthusiasm and all move forward together.”

This article was originally published on golfdigest.com