Rory McIlroy hasn't held back, when discussing PGA Tour players who have elected to join the LIV Golf Invitational Series.
McIlroy was asked if he was surprised about one golfer in particular - Brooks Koepka - for his decision to join the rival tour.
"Am I surprised?" said McIlory. "Yes, because of what he said previously.
"I think that's why I'm surprised at a lot of these guys, because they say one thing and then they do another. I don't understand that, and I don't know if that's for legal reasons or if they can't - I have no idea, but it's pretty duplicitous on their part to say one thing and then do another thing."
When asked about when Koepka made his comments, McIlroy was blunt with his response.
"The whole way through," he said. "The whole way through, in public and private, all of it."
McIlroy and Koepka were due to compete this week in the Travelers Championship at Cromwell, Connecticut, but Koepka has withdrawn from the PGA Tour event and the LIV Golf Series announced Koepka had joined. He is scheduled to participate in the first US event on June 30 at Portland.
Before the US Open, Koepka, 32, said media was responsible for the uproar over the player exodus to the LIV and giving the new tour "legs".
"I'm here at the US Open," he said. "I'm ready to play the US Open and I think it kind of [stinks], too, you are all throwing this black cloud over the US Open.
"It's one of my favorite events and I don't know why you guys keep doing that. The more legs you give [LIV Golf], the more you keep talking about it."
McIlroy, 33, has also talked about the proposed new fall schedule as a means to compete with the burgeoning LIV Golf Invitational Series. Those new tournaments would rotate sites around the world and - like LIV's tournaments - have no cut.
"I think having the FedExCup season go to a calendar year, like January to August, I think that would be a pretty good idea," he said. "Then it gives guys the opportunity to play if they want to play in the fall or if they don't want to play in the fall, they don't have to, they're not forced to, it's not going to make a difference in any way.
"But again, a lot of these fall events are destination events, like Napa and Mexico and places where people like to bring their families, and have a sort of half golf tournament, half vacation, so you're still going to have guys that play in some of those events.
"Again, you're trying to give playing opportunities and create prize funds for the lower half of the membership, but also by trying to accommodate what the upper half of the membership want as well, by saying they want an off-season, time away from FedExCup schedule. It's a balance."
Reuters
