Rory McIlroy has said he played golf with Donald Trump in early January before his inauguration and said US president is “on the PGA Tour’s side” when it comes to golf’s civil war. The Northern Irishman said he had a good discussion with Trump during his round and learned that he is not a fan of the LIV format. “I said ‘you’ve hosted their events?’ but he said ‘it doesn’t mean I like it’. I think he’s on the tour’s side.” When asked what Trump can do to help merger talks between the PGA Tour and LIV, McIlroy said: “The president can do a lot of things, he has direct access to Yasir [Al-Rumayyan]’s boss, not many people have that. Not many people can say ‘I want you to get this deal done, and by the way I’m speaking to your boss later, I’m going to tell him the same thing’. “He can be influential, he loves golf, I was playing with a Sheikh Hamdan of Abu Dhabi the day he got elected in November, the respect he has in the Middle East, I don’t think people understand the respect he has there, so I think whenever he says something they listen, so that’s a big thing.” McIlroy played with Trump in February 2017 and said in 2020 that he wouldn’t play golf again with him and doubted he would even be invited after questioning his leadership during the coronavirus pandemic. “I haven’t done it since ... out of choice,” McIlroy said back then. In November, McIlroy suggested Trump’s return to the White House could accelerate peace talks between traditional golf tours and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. McIlroy even floated the idea of Elon Musk becoming involved in golf’s elongated merger plans. McIlroy plays this week on the PGA Tour at the Genesis Invitational at Torrey Pines.