“Trust me, it won’t happen!”  With Rory McIlroy ruling out rumours the European Tour will not be staging three events next month in Florida

McIlroy was speaking ahead of this week’s ‘second’ defence of his Players Championship crown at TPC Sawgrass after the Tour went into lockdown a year ago and just a few hours post the close of the opening round of their flagship event at Ponte Vedra in Florida.

It has been suggested in a London newspaper that three European Tour events, two in Spain and one in Portugal, and due to be staged in the week following next month’s Masters will be moving to Florida given a current golfing lockdown in both European nations.

Rory McIlroy says any suggestions of the European Tour heading to Florida next month is not going to happen.

McIlroy’s appearance on a Zoom conference at TPC Sawgrass is the first opportunity since the Fleet Street generated story of talk the European Tour was planning such an exercise to comment on the news story.

And after McIlroy indicated the move will not be taking place, he was asked what was the basis for that view.

“I’m pretty sure it’s not going to happen, which is a good thing because I think it means things are starting to get a little better back in Europe,” he stated.

And with his Chairman of the Players Advisory Committee cap on, McIlroy was asked if his view of the Premier Golf League had changed and given his strong views against such a move

“No, it hasn’t changed at all.” he said.

“I haven’t heard much about them over the past year. If they’ve been making the rounds, they certainly haven’t been approaching us or my team.

“Again, I think with the new strategic partnership between the PGA Tour and the European Tour, I think that is the beginning of something that could become quite significant. Yeah, it’s not something that I’ve heard a lot of, and yeah, I just can’t see where they can go from here.”