Rory McIlroy reached out to Johnson Wagner via email following his ‘rant’ against $170M superstar
Recently, pro golfer Johnson Wagner called out Rory McIlroy in a fiery rant on the Golf Channel. After McIlroy's comments about the future of golf and what the merger and introduction of LIV Golf has meant, Wagner was frustrated and implored the Irishman to consider alternative perspectives.
There was some anger in Wagner's rant, and McIlroy saw it. He reached out and spoke with Wagner, though not in person. The golfer revealed this on Lucas Glover's Sirius XM show.
The golfer said via Golfweek:
"He emailed me Thursday night and we've traded a couple of correspondences, but I have not heard back from him since the first one. I think his agent reached out to someone higher up at Golf Channel. And like, you know, I guess I'm – the thing I said at the end of my rant was that, ‘He's angering me,’ and that's the only thing that I'm sorry for. The rest of it, I stand by completely."
Wagner is sorry he called out McIlroy personally, but he stands on the sentiment of what he said. He still believes the $170 million worth (Celebrity Net Worth) star needs to consider things from other perspectives besides his own.
Lucas Glover, Johnson Wagner disagree with Rory McIlroy
Both Lucas Glover and Johnson Wagner believe the shrinking of the PGA Tour and the potential return of LIV players will only make it harder for golfers who aren't superstars. They don't think this is in the best interest of the sport.
Glover said via Golfweek:
"We've been on both sides. We've seen it from the good side. We've seen it from the fighting-to-keep-our-card side. And I feel like if you have those perspectives, those opinions, you're a little bit more open-minded to the greater good for the membership, not just the top 10, 20, or 30 even."
That is, in Glover's own words, the reason he's been so "adamant" that losing cards and shrinking PGA Tour field sizes hurts. According to Glover, it hurts those at the bottom and doesn't let them climb up to the top.
Wagner echoed the sentiment, saying that unheralded players like Jake Knapp winning or Aldrich Potgieter doing well are such good stories because they crawled up from the bottom, but they wouldn't be able to in a smaller PGA Tour with only the stars.