McIlroy warns LIV golfers of "tough road back" as Scheffler closes on Woods earnings record

Scottie Scheffler romped to a runaway BMW Championship win in St Louis, pushing his career PGA Tour earnings to $119,964,411 — less than $1.2 million short of Tiger Woods' all-time record of $120,999,166. The victory was Scheffler's 21st on tour. Woods has 82.

The money gap is tiny. The win gap is enormous, and Scheffler knows it. He said his earnings "has a lot to do with the purses" — prize funds on the PGA Tour have swelled sharply in recent years, partly in response to the threat posed by LIV Golf, the Saudi-backed rival circuit — and that he is "not really too close to him in terms of career wins" (BBC).

Woods, 15-time major champion, has been sidelined by injuries and operations since missing the cut at The Open in July 2024. His record, for now, stands untouched.

While Scheffler was collecting trophies in St Louis, Rory McIlroy was having a week to forget. He shot eight-over par at the FedEx St Jude Championship in Memphis — the first event of the PGA Tour's playoff series — and finished 66th. Looking ahead to the BMW Championship, McIlroy said "progress from where I was last week would be a win for me" (BBC).

McIlroy's thoughts, though, were also on the broader landscape of professional golf. He questioned the value that LIV Golf players would bring to the PGA Tour if they returned, warning "it's going to be a tough, tough road back" for them (ESPN; Sky Sports).

His stance has hardened. In January, McIlroy said he would be "OK" with Bryson DeChambeau and other LIV defectors coming back "if it made the overall tour stronger" (Golf Channel). In May, he told LIV players that "if you want to be the most competitive golfer you can be, this is the place to be" — meaning the PGA Tour (Sky Sports).

Now he is questioning what returning LIV players actually add. He said they should expect a "tough road back" if LIV's next phase — sometimes called LIV 2.0 — never gets off the ground or fails to appeal to them (Golfweek).

McIlroy has been here before. He backed the PGA Tour's decision to suspend LIV players in June 2022, standing alongside Justin Thomas (Sky Sports). Donald Trump, for his part, has said he wants to see McIlroy play DeChambeau and backed the return of LIV golfers to the PGA Tour (Sky Sports).

For McIlroy, the on-course picture has been mixed this year. He was chasing a second successive major title at the PGA Championship in May (Sky Sports). Before that, he returned to PGA Tour action at the Truist Championship with a round of 17 consecutive pars — a card of one-under-par that showed rust as much as resolve (Sky Sports).

So McIlroy finds himself between swings and between arguments — playing his way back into form while telling LIV's players, in increasingly blunt terms, that the door home is not as wide open as they might think.