"I feel bad for RBC and the Canadian Open."
That was Rory McIlroy Wednesday ahead of his RBC Canadian Open three-peat bid, because for the second straight year, the focus at the event hasn't been the golf itself.
The 2022 RBC Canadian Open — which was being contested for the first time since 2019 due to COVID — ran concurrently with the inaugural LIV Golf event in London, essentially the first time in modern history a rival circuit was competing against the PGA Tour. That Thursday, the Tour suspended its 17 members who teed it up that week in the Saudi-backed league.