McIlroy definitively shoots down LIV speculation: "It's not for me; I am too much of a traditionalist”

Rory McIlroy has shot down any chance of a move to LIV Golf after all but confirming that his recent comments on a mega-move were tongue in cheek.

The world number two was asked at last week's Cognizant Classic about comments by his former agent, Chubby Chandler, who suggested that his softening attitude on PGA Tour sanctions for LIV Golf rebels was a sign that he might be willing to make the jump.

McIlroy told ESPN. "I love winning golf tournaments and looking at the trophy and seeing Sam Snead won this trophy, or Ben Hogan, or Gene Sarazen, or Jack Nicklaus, or Gary Player, or Tiger Woods, or Nick Faldo, or whoever it is. 

“The people that came before me. That, to me, is a big deal in our game."

Chandler estimated there was a 10pc chance that McIlroy could make the jump, but while McIlroy's comments indicated to some that there might be a chance, he was clearly being ironic.

"You never know; he might know a few things," McIlroy replied when asked about Chandler’s speculative comments during his pre-tournament press conference in Palm Beach Gardens last week.

As for his former agent’s suggestion there was a 10pc chance he’d jump ship, McIlroy added: "Maybe somewhere in the middle. Who knows."

The four-time major winner would love to see the game's best players reunited and not just at the four majors.

He told ESPN: "If we were to all put our heads together and be like, 'What can we all do to come back together and move forward and be a little more cohesive', then I would sort of be for that'."

He's at loggerheads with PGA Tour colleagues such as Jordan Spieth or Rickie Fowler, who feel that players who took the money to sign for LIV Golf should not be able to return to the PGA Tour without some sort of punishment.

"I think life is about choices," said McIlroy ahead of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am last month. "Guys made choices to go and play LIV, guys made choices to stay here.

"If people still have eligibility on this tour and they want to come back and play or you want to try and do something, let them come back.

"I think it's hard to punish people. I don't think there should be a punishment."

He'd like to see the game evolve and create a golfing equivalent of the Champions League or IPL cricket, where the game’s best compete around the world.

How that would be done given the slow progress of the PGA Tour's merger talks with the PIF, the backer of LIV Golf, and the recent $1.5 billion cash injection from private equity group SSG remains to be seen.

There is already debate about the strengths and weaknesses of the PGA Tour's signature event series.

Just 69 players teed it up in the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill this week.

It's one of just three signature events, along with Tiger Woods's Genesis Invitational and Jack Nicklaus' Memorial Tournament, to feature a cut to the top 50 and ties and any player within ten shots of the lead.

But even with 59 of the 69-man field surviving the three-over cut at Bay Hill last night, McIlroy favours even more streamlined fields.

While he said last night he was "indifferent" to cuts at those events, he wants more elite fields.

"Yeah, I was indifferent,” he said of the cut concept. “I think, when all these signature events were thought of, we were thinking no cut, but if it's important enough, or if it's that important to Tiger and Jack and if Arnold were alive if it was important enough for him, then it's their tournament, at the end of the day, and they can do whatever they want," he said. 

"I could have went either way, but if it's important enough to those guys, then we'll have a cut."

Asked if he'd like to have seen bigger fields for the signature events, he said: "No, I mean, I'm all for making it more cutthroat, more competitive.

"Probably won't be very popular for saying this, but I'm all for less players and less Tour cards, and the best of the best."

McIlroy shot a two-under 70 on Friday to go into today's third round tied for 30th on one-under.

He's six shots adrift of a sextet of leaders in world number one Scottie Scheffler (67), Genesis Invitational winner Hideki Matsuyama (70), Shane Lowry (71), Open champion Brian Harman (68), Russell Henley (69) and US Open champion Wyndham Clark (66).

They lead by one stroke from Will Zalatoris, with West Waterford's Seamus Power tied for 46th on two-over after a second-round 74.