Full Swing

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Tape one-four-three, interview take one.

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Sound speeds. Rory McIlroy interview.

Full Swing Season 2.

Let's do it.

Just a year ago, you were LIV Golf, or you were not.

- Tiger! - I did not envision this happening.

It's astronomical money that they're throwing at people,

and everything's got a price, I guess.

I don't really care.

Going with LIV, I'm happy with the decisions I've made.

I was very jealous of everything that Jordan did.

Someone's gotta be the 70th-best golfer in the world.

Might as well be me.

I feel like I'm trying to win my first major championship again.

If the 2022 season was about disruption,

then the 2023 season is about figuring out what's next.

Going through this struggle for the last few years

is not easy.

It's a grind out there.

You can't be serious!

If I don't play good golf, I can't provide.

We don't have a house. We don't have anything.

With everything that happened and all the craziness,

that's gonna wear anybody down.

Damn it, Joel.

At this point, you're on the PGA TOUR side,

or you're on the LIV Golf side.

And you've got the majors now that stand alone

as these four events per year where these guys meet.

It's gonna be interesting to see how these guys come back together.

What's up, bud? You good?

I wanna have faith that this is the best thing for all of us,

but it's clear that that's not, uh, the consensus.

Not only do we have LIV players teeing it up

in all four major championships,

but it's also a Ryder Cup year.

The Ryder Cup is one of the most special sporting events in the world.

It's the fucking best.

Eyes on the prize.

12 Americans and 12 Europeans play against each other every two years.

Everybody wants to be on that Ryder Cup team.

I wanna make the Ryder Cup more than anything.

I'm thinking about the Ryder Cup every second of every day.

We're really playing for something that's bigger than ourselves.

It's gonna be hard. There will be difficult situations, and drama can ensue.

And Rory is hot.

I'm looking around like, "What just happened?"

As if that wasn't wild enough.

Some serious breaking news.

The PGA TOUR merging with LIV Golf.

Shocking.

One of the biggest stories in the history of the sport.

- So many unanswered questions. - It's like, "What?"

- Has this happened in any sport's history? - No one knows anything.

There has been a lot of controversy and a lot of uncertainty.

I get all that.

It's hard for me to not feel somewhat like a sacrificial lamb.

This live stream's ending right now, boys.

Yeah, it's been quite the year in the world of professional golf.

Dude, the funniest part is I'm sure he's taking a deuce.

He'd be out by now if he was peeing.

True.

Yeah, don't worry. I wasn't taking a dump or anything.

I hope you feel like shit.

No pun intended.

Hey, I didn't do 'em all.

Jordan kind of screwed that one up.

Yeah. Sorry, Rick.

BongoByTheWay

Came a long way

Came a long way, came a long way

Came a long way

Been a long way, real long way…

Came a long way

Real long way

Been a long way…

This is gonna be… It's gonna be nuts tomorrow.

One girl ate it so bad in these heels.

She was so embarrassed, she didn't wanna fix it.

All this is is me putting sun… uh, sun cream on.

This was the same last season too.

Take your shirt off, Joel!

Fuck.

We're professionals.

My parents always told me to think before you act.

Ah, whatever.

Can you sign my bag too?

Yes, I will. Where do you want it? Do you care?

- Over here. - Right here?

At the start of 2023, things are much clearer.

Last year, there was so much uncertainty.

Now it's sort of you understand

who's on which side of the battle lines.

You've got the LIV guys, and you've got the PGA TOUR guys.

They've kind of chosen their team. Yeah, now it's product versus product.

The PGA TOUR loyalists, I guess you'd put it,

guys who aren't so driven as much by money.

Justin Thomas.

Jordan Spieth.

Matt Fitzpatrick.

Rickie Fowler is another one who stayed on the PGA TOUR.

But Rory McIlroy is kind of the most salient one.

He is the face of the PGA TOUR.

Rory, technically, you are world number one.

I'm just curious. Do you feel like you're the best player in the world right now?

Yes.

Why is that?

Um…

Because I do.

Golf, with what happened with LIV last year,

and sort of with what's happening…

I have a pretty strong conviction

of what I think professional golf should be, what it should look like,

how competitive it should be, and I want to stand up for that.

Rory, what he's done throughout his career,

he's earned that presence

that everyone trusted to… to be the face,

essentially, to make sure things were going right.

People are gonna realize how much work he put into this,

because it's not easy to just come home and say,

"Hey, I'm going to open up my computer and hop on 50 Zoom calls."

I'm tired just traveling three weeks in a row.

I wanna come home and just sleep on my bed.

Rory has been so vocal against the LIV tour.

He is taking front and center stage

as the ultimate superhero leading the rest of the pack of superheroes

against the LIV tour.

If he wins the major championship,

he can just sit back and cackle at everybody.

It's the ultimate icing on the cake.

People like to choose one side or another.

If you have your finger on the pulse of golf…

…it's pretty apparent that one side has quite a lot more support than the other.

On the other hand, LIV is launching its first full season,

but it hasn't really shown that it has staying power.

I mean, so far, there's a lot of questions right now.

The guys on LIV got hundreds of millions of dollars

to leave the PGA TOUR, and some huge names did leave.

Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, all gone.

And major champions like Bryson DeChambeau,

Patrick Reed, Cameron Smith, they joined them.

These guys are unbelievable golfers, don't get me wrong,

but there is a consensus in the golf world that they just took the money,

and now they're not working nearly as hard.

At least in the public eye,

the PGA TOUR is still seen as the gold standard of golf.

Brooks Koepka!

He holds his nerve.

That was the stereotype of the golfers going to LIV,

is like, "Maybe they're washed-up, maybe they're done."

You know, "They're phoning it in."

"Let's just go and play easy golf. Three days, no cuts."

But Brooks is back. Let's see… let's see what happens.

And he will head to Augusta in fine fettle.

Hey, congrats, man.

- Great shit, dude. That's awesome. - Thank you. Appreciate it.

When these guys meet at the Masters in a few days,

there is an expectation that the PGA TOUR guys will dominate,

proving that, from a golf perspective, they are the superior tour.

Okay, you got your belt on. It's not going to beep.

- Is it gonna beep? - No.

No, it's not. We're good.

For me, it's like I know that clock is ticking.

I was able to knock off four major championships

pretty quickly in my career,

um, but I've been stuck on four for a while.

I don't deserve… No one deserves anything in this game.

Like, nothing is handed to you. It's all earned.

And I feel ready to earn it again.

I'm happy to be here.

- Thanks for doing it here. - Thanks for being here. This is awesome.

Yeah, it's cool. Really cool.

Really cool spot here.

- Let me know when you want me to go. - Go ahead.

So, it's ten minutes each spot.

- He's just… Yeah. - Cool.

I think this new role that I've sort of been thrust into,

this sort of, you know, spokesman, or leader, or whatever it is,

it's certainly not something that I asked for.

I didn't go to Jay Monahan or anyone at the tour

and say, "Hey, let me… let me lead."

I maybe put myself in this position without really knowing it.

If you're not looking for ways to improve and you're standing still,

I just don't think that's the right way to approach things, so I think…

Rory, for whatever reason, was willing to take on the burden

of being the face of the PGA TOUR.

Rory's a very marketable guy.

You know, probably the biggest star to emerge in golf since Tiger Woods.

The exact type of guy Jay Monahan wants to smile and take pictures next to.

Three, two, one.

Thank you.

So, you're encouraging your… your… your people to take…

I would say I'm probably closer with Jay

than any of the other players on tour.

That would be my relationship with Jay.