Rory McIlroy issued one-word response to Liverpool owner John Henry after PGA Tour question

Rory McIlroy downplayed any idea of player ownership within the PGA Tour, following a meeting with John Henry, chief of Strategic Sports Group (SSG), over their decision to partner with the Tour.

Henry, who owns Liverpool F.C. and the Boston Red Sox through Fenway Sports Group (FSG), entered the professional golf scene earlier this year when SSG pledged an initial investment of $1.5 billion into PGA Tour Enterprises. This investment followed the Tour's announcement of plans to align with the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia (PIF) in an effort to end their feud with LIV Golf last June.

More than a year after the initial announcement of a framework agreement between the PGA Tour and PIF, a final deal is yet to be completed.

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Meanwhile, Henry and SSG stepped in at the start of 2024, pledging billions of dollars into the American-based circuit amid months of little progress with their Saudi counterparts. However, this isn't Henry's only foray into the world of golf. FSG also announced their support for Boston Common, one of the six franchises participating in the soon-to-be-launched innovative golf league, TGL.

McIlroy, a co-founder of TGL alongside Tiger Woods, was confirmed as one of the four Boston Common players and was hosted at Fenway Park by Henry following the investment. According to the Boston Globe, Henry asked McIlroy if he felt like he 'owned' the Tour, to which the Northern Irish golfer simply replied: "No."

Days later, Henry and his SSG partners reportedly hosted the Tour's player directors, including McIlroy and Woods, in an attempt to sell them on their plans with the PGA Tour. SSG were not the only group pitching to the Tour, as three other bidders were also in the running before it was ultimately decided that Henry and his team had won over the golfing elite.

McIlroy has since left the Tour's policy board after resigning from his player director position last November. Despite this, he claimed that he would have voted in favor of the SSG investment, having previously welcomed the new partnership back in February. "I definitely would have voted for it," he said.

"I think the group that has been assembled to invest into, well, PGA Tour Enterprises, I guess, not the PGA Tour, but PGA Tour Enterprises. It's a wonderful group of people that have tons of experience in sports ownership over the past 30 years. I've gotten to know those guys pretty well, especially the Fenway consortium.

"We worked with them to sell the majority share of my TGL team to them, so we've worked pretty closely for the last year or so. They're a great group of people and have the best intentions for the game of golf, which is great. Yeah, I felt it was good news."