Getty Rory McIlroy during a practice round ahead of the 2024 Players Championship.
In an interview with Heavy Sports, Rory McIlroy‘s former agent said his ex-client has “always been a weak putter” and that McIlroy has been “wronged” by the PGA Tour.
Andrew “Chubby” Chandler, whose professional relationship with McIlroy ended in 2011, also discussed the second best player in the world, when the PGA Tour and LIV Golf would merge and other topics.
Here are the highlights from Heavy Sports’ March 11 interview with Chandler:
Chubby Chandler Says Rory McIlroy Has ‘Always Been a Weak Putter’
Rory McIlroy made less than 17 feet of putts on his back nine Thursday.
He spent nearly an hour on the greens after his round working on his putting.
After watching McIlroy finish tied for 21st at the Arnold Palmer Invitation on March 10, Chandler said he saw flashes of greatness from his former client but said he overall was “pretty average.”
“I think this week was probably quite worrying to him because he played like all the rest do, and that’s not often,” Chandler said. “He had two hours where he played unbelievable golf. That back nine on Saturday was amazing, but the rest of the time was pretty average.”
McIlroy, 34, has 1.79 putts per hole this season, ranking him 138th on the PGA Tour.
“I think [Rory] has always been a weak putter. He’s always been an average putter,” Chandler said. “Now and again, he gets above average, and he wins. But most of the time, he’s an average putter compared to some of the guys.”
Chandler Believes Joaquin Niemann, Not Rory, Is the Second-Best Player in the World
Joaquin Niemann wins his second LIV Golf title of the year. 🏆
He’s won two of the first three LIV Golf tournaments this year.
Even though McIlroy is ranked second in Official World Golf Ranking, behind Scottie Schefter, he’s not really the second best player in the world, Chandler told Heavy Sports. That distinction belongs to 25-year-old Chilean Joaquin Niemann, who’s won two of the four LIV Golf events played 2024 and notched a win at the Australian Open to close his 2023 campaign.
“[Niemann] is obviously one of the best players in the world at the moment,” Chandler said. “You know, you don’t beat those guys like he has done without being a very good player. We forget that they’re really good players.
“The fact that they’re playing over three rounds with a DJ and stuff behind them makes us forget that it’s still proper golf,” he said, referring to the Saudi-backed circuit, whose tournaments feature three rounds of golf rather than four, like on the PGA Tour.
On whether the world rankings mean anything, given that golfers don’t accumulate OWGR points for playing LIV Golf tournaments, Chandler dismissed the world rankings.
“I don’t think you can take any notice of them at all,” he said. “And I think when they swallow their pride — you read about how much they’re influenced by the PGA Tour — at some stage, somebody’s got to sort of say this is crazy because there are 20 guys not in the top 50 who should be.”
Niemann, of course, will be one of many LIV players at The Masters, and Chandler said he was looking forward to Augusta: “One of the nice storylines for The Masters is the LIV guys versus the PGA Tour guys.”
Chandler Says McIlroy Was ‘Wronged’ by the PGA Tour
🐑 Rory McIlroy says he feels ‘somewhat like a sacrificial lamb’.
Chandler and I also discussed the recently released second season of the highly acclaimed Netflix series Full Swing, the first two episodes of which dive into the still-pending merger between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf.
Rory McIlroy, of course, was a member of the PGA Tour Policy Board for a time (a role he’s since left) and has never hidden his disdain for LIV as a whole. The four-time major winner was essentially the face of the PGA Tour in its fight against LIV before the proposed merger, which surprised just about everyone, including McIlroy, when it was announced, which Full Swing highlighted at length.
Here’s what Chandler had to say on the matter:
“[Full Swing] highlighted how wronged Rory had been by the PGA Tour. I mean, he’s been sat up there and was the spokesman for 15 months, was very outspoken, and then they didn’t bother to tell him that they were going to pull out the rug from under his feet and make him actually look pretty stupid. And I feel sorry for him.
“I think he wasted a year of his golf career being involved in a lot of the things that, in the end, nobody listened to. And you’d have never got Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods doing that.”
Chandler Shares Thoughts on When PGA Tour and LIV Golf Will Finally Merge
GettyAndrew ‘Chubby’ Chandler circa July 2022.
Chandler also offered his thoughts on when he believes the PGA Tour and LIV Golf will finally merge and discussed how the two measure up to one another.
“I think what’ll happen is LIV will continue as it is for this year and next. And it’s pretty obvious what should happen. The PGA Tour should play from January to August, and then LIV should play from September to November or early December.
“Because if you see what’s happened — I quite like watching LIV; I’ve gotten quite into it. I’ve been to Hong Kong many times, and they’ve never had a field like they had this week.
“So you can see that when they travel around like Formula 1, it’s going to be a big deal for everybody. And it was very obvious that the crowds this week in Hong Kong were much bigger than they are when LIV is in the States, or Mexico, or wherever.
“And if LIV services the rest of the world and then a bit of America, then it’s doing a decent job, I think. To me, it’s a take off the Indian Premier League (cricket) and F1. I think it’s somewhere between the two. And if it’s half as successful as either, I think it’s going to do alright.
“I think by the end of next year, something will have happened to bring them together. If Tiger were still playing, it would be different. But he isn’t going to play again, at least not enough to make a difference on the PGA Tour.
“So when I think of the PGA Tour, a regular event, they don’t even stand up against LIV. This weekend’s Signature Event is probably a similar-strength field, maybe slightly stronger on the PGA Tour. The non-Signature Events in no way compare with LIV.”
As I spoke with Chandler the day after the final round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational, which wrapped up on March 10, we naturally discussed how dominant Scottie Scheffler was during his five-stroke victory at Bay Hill. McIlroy tied for 21st at the event, and while he putted better than he had in recent starts, he still struggled at times with the flat stick.
“And right now, you can’t see much past Scheffler. He’s been playing so well and putting so badly, but if he actually gets the putting together, he could be better than everybody most weeks. His stats have been amazing.”
We want to thank Chubby Chandler for his time and the folks at Press Box PR and BetIdeas.com for setting up the interview.