Is golf’s most high-profile bromance quarreling? Well, it appears that depends upon your definition of quarreling.

On Thursday evening at the Wells Fargo, Rory McIlroy addressed reporters for the first time since reports swirled of a rift that has formed between him 

and Tiger Woods in the wake of the latest PGA Tour governance drama. 

When asked directly about those reports, McIlroy appeared to acknowledge at least a kernel of truth to the suggestion that Woods and McIlroy have been on different pages lately, 

but denied any suggestion that those disagreements have affected the pair’s relationship.

As far as the pair’s “disagreements,” it doesn’t take a member of the Tour PAC to understand their origin. 

Woods and McIlroy are two of the central figures involved in the grueling process to forge professional golf’s future. Woods, a permanent PGA Tour player-director, has been one of the key figures crafting an image of the game that blends the Saudi PIF’s model for golf with the PGA Tour’s. While McIlroy, a former player-director whose recent attempt to re-join the board was rejected, has been perhaps the most vocal professional golfer in the world on matters of Saudi involvement in golf.

If you’ve been paying even a little bit of attention to golf over these last two years, you know there are roughly as many opinions about the future of the sport as there are professional golfers. Dissension and disagreement over even the smallest of details at this stage is one of the few certainties of the process. 

But dissension and disagreement between Woods and McIlroy is notable if only because of the key role both players hold in pushing talks over the finish line — to say nothing of the role their friendship has played in advancing the Tour’s cause over these tense recent months.

“No, there’s no strain there,” McIlroy said, downplaying the report. “I think we might see the future of golf a little bit differently, but I don’t think that should place any strain on a relationship or on a friendship.”

It’s not clear exactly how the two might view the future differently — McIlroy said later in the presser that he and other Tour pros had been briefed on a “150-page” document on the future product — but it should come as no surprise to hear these are high-stress topics in the golf world. And particularly high stress for figures like Woods, whose playing legacy as one of the greatest golfers ever is tied in no small way to his records and allegiance on the PGA Tour. Which is to say that if the Tour model changes too widely, it could affect the way Woods’ playing records on Tour are viewed, and by extension, how Woods himself is viewed.

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Source: Tampa Bay Times