‘How would he know?': Rory McIlroy dismisses Kevin Kisner's cash-grab claim

Just because Rory McIlroy is growing his bank account doesn’t mean he isn’t also trying to grow the game.

So the Northern Irishman said in response to criticism from Kevin Kisner, who questioned McIlroy’s stated motivations for playing in this week’s DP World India Championship in New Delhi.

In case you missed it, here’s the context. McIlroy was in the tournament for the second straight year and, like several other marquee players in the field, including Tommy Fleetwood and Justin Rose, he received an undisclosed appearance fee. 

Such fees come with certain obligations. Among them was face time at a Bloomberg New Economy Forum in New Delhi earlier in the week, where McIlroy discussed the opportunity to expand golf’s reach in India and suggested that his participation in the tournament could help introduce the sport to a wider audience.

From the far side of the world, Kisner scoffed at that idea. Speaking on the Fore Play podcast, the Tour pro-turned-broadcaster called McIlroy’s comment “dog s—t” and said that McIlroy and other big names in New Delhi were in it purely for the money.

“I know there’s a pile of guys who get paid for that event,” Kisner said. “How else would you get that event in India with eight billion people in the middle of the city?”

When reporters at the India event relayed those comments to him, McIlroy responded with a question of his own.

“How would he know that?” he said of Kisner.

McIlroy went on to argue that financial incentives and a genuine interest in growing the sport can coexist.

“Two things can be true at the same time,” he said. “People can be paid to come play in a tournament but at the same time do it from a place of genuine interest of trying to bring the sport to another country, a developing country. A country where the middle class in India is larger than the whole population of the United States. It’s a huge partner for golf.”

For readers who care more about results on the course than comments off it, McIlroy finished T42 in New Delhi, 17 shots behind winner Eugenio Lopez-Chacarra.

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