As part of the “transaction committee” that oversees negotiations directly on behalf of the PGA Tour with the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, Rory McIlroy made it clear that the DOJ’s role in delaying the process has also been greatly accentuated by the various conflicting views that still exist between players of both the PGA Tour and LIV Golf.

Rory McIlroy speaks to DOJ involvement in PGA Tour/LIV Golf negotiations

As any golf fan knows, the DP World Tour’s flagship event, the BMW PGA Championship will get underway this Thursday, September 19th at the Wentworth Club in Surrey, England. With that, some of Europe’s biggest stars will be on show. One of them is of course, Rory McIlroy and while the Northern Irishman will be looking to get back to winning ways as he continues to endure a difficult spell, it was not the game of golf that he spoke about when questioned by the media on Wednesday, but rather the business of it.

Questioned about the current status of negotiations between the PGA Tour and the Saudi-backed LIV Golf, McIlroy gave some rather interesting insight as he opened up about the way in which the U.S. Department of Justice has hindered the process. “Department of Justice. Maybe different interests from the players’ side,” McIlroy said on Wednesday. “It’s pretty similar. I’d say maybe half the players on LIV want the deal to get done; half probably don’t. I’d say it’s probably similar on the PGA Tour. Because just like anything, everyone’s looking out for themselves and their best interests. It would benefit some people for a deal not to get done, but it would obviously benefit some people for a deal to get done.”

Continuing, the 35-year-old doubled down on the idea of how varying views across the board have created further obstacles. “I think there’s different opinions amongst the players about what should happen, and I think when you have a members-run organization, it complicates things a little bit, especially when should of those players are having to make decisions on the business side of things. So those are the two. I think the tours want it to happen. The investors certainly want it to happen because they can see the benefit for themselves.”

The DOJ’s position on PGA Tour & LIV Golf negotiations is known

Now, it’s worth noting that this is not exactly surprising news. For some time now the American government has made clear its discomfort with the idea of a Saudi-funded league operating within American borders without transparency. It was indeed the focus of U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, chair of the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, who demanded that the governor of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), the official financier of LIV Golf, comply with a congressional request for testimony and information.

Blumenthal’s letter to PIF governor, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, disputed the contention that Al-Rumayyan is an “inappropriate witness” in the Senate’s investigation of the ongoing PIF-PGA Tour agreement. As per Blumenthal’s letter, the Subcommittee “is seeking to understand the scope of PIF’s U.S.-based investments and PIF’s plans for the PGA Tour and other U.S. entities.” With that said, there may be a silver lining in that reports also confirmed that a meeting between representatives of the PGA Tour, DP World Tour, and the PIF took place last week in New York. While there has been no official word on what took place, McIlroy was optimistic about what occurred.

“I think one of the stumbling blocks is the Department of Justice, and I think trying to approach that from a collaborative standpoint, I think seems to be the best way forward. I think to me it seems like the people that are really making the decisions are all rowing in the same direction, which is a really good thing. And even if they are all rowing in the same direction, it still doesn’t mean that a deal may get done because it’s just a very complicated set of circumstances. But from what I hear, there’s optimism there, and that’s good to see.” For the moment, we can only watch this space.