Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth’s awkward relationship before Players Championship debate

Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth were involved in yet another awkward encounter on Thursday, as the pair played alongside each in the opening round of the Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass. After finding the water from the tee on the par-four seventh, McIlroy took a penalty drop in the left-hand-side rough next to the hazard, before Spieth questioned the positioning of the drop.

Spieth stepped in after questioning whether McIlroy’s errant tee shot had bounced below the red hazard line, which would require him to play his next shot back on the tee box. McIlroy meanwhile appeared fairly confident that his ball had in fact first landed above the boundary line before making its way into the water, leading to a near-eight minute discussion between the pair on the fairway.

“I’m pretty confident it did [bounce above the red boundary line],” the four-time major winner claimed, before Spieth responded: “Everyone I’m hearing that had eyes on it, which again is not what matters, are saying they are 100 percent certain it landed below the line, that is all I’m saying.”

“Who are you talking about?” McIlroy then replied, before Spieth pointed over to members of the media. Whilst things did get slightly heated, Spieth did appear to have best interests of the Northern Irishman at heart, commenting: “The media people back on the tee are saying, so I thought, ‘Hey, shall we check so that you don’t take a wrong drop?’.”

Eventually it was determined that due to inconclusive evidence McIlroy was able to to drop from the rough, and play continued with Spieth returning to play his own ball. This is not the first time the PGA Tour stars have been involved in lengthy debate, with the pair holding a one-hour phone call last month over the the sport’s current off-course politics.

The conversation came last month, after Sports Illustrated reported that McIlroy had removed himself from a group chat containing the PGA Tour’s elite players. It was revealed that Speith reached out to the European star, and the pair then discussed the American’s comments regarding the Tour no longer needing the help of the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia after striking a deal with Strategic Sports Group (SSG).

“I just want to remove myself from the fray a little bit,” McIlroy said. “I talked to him [Spieth] about his comments. And we had a pretty frank discussion. My thing was if I’m the original investor that thought that they were going to get this deal done back in July, and I’m hearing a board member say that, you know, we don’t really need them, now, how are they going to think about that, what are they gonna feel about that?

“They are still sitting out there with hundreds of billions of dollars, if not trillions, that they’re gonna pour into sport. And I know what Jordan was saying, I absolutely know what he was saying and what he was trying to say. But if I were PIF and I was hearing that coming from here, the day after doing this SSG deal, it wouldn’t have made me too happy, I guess?”

Just three months prior to their hour-long phone call, McIlroy was replaced by Spieth on the PGA Tour Policy Board after the Northern Irishman opted to resign as a Player Director. The move came as part of the Northern Irishman’s steady move away from the off-course saga between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf.