Rory McIlroy has conceded the PGA Tour and LIV Golf may have grown 'too far apart' to reunify the men’s professional game and bring the world’s best players together more frequently.
A framework agreement was announced in June 2023 involving the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and LIV Golf, although there has been no sign since of that commercial partnership between the men's tours being finalised.
Brooks Koepka was welcomed back to the PGA Tour - since leaving the LIV Golf League - under the new Returning Member Program, a system implemented for a limited group of 'elite performers', although McIlroy is doubtful of the tours working closer together.
"I don't see a world where the two or three sides - or whoever it is - will give up enough," McIlroy said ahead of the Hero Dubai Desert Classic, live from Thursday on Your Site Golf.
"Like for reunification to happen, every side is going to feel like they will have lost, where you really want every side to feel like they have won. I think they are just too far apart for that to happen."
McIlroy added: "I think relationships [between tours] are better but, at the same time, that doesn't necessarily mean that every organisation will give up in its own best interest."
Players who feature in the LIV Golf League remain suspended from the PGA Tour, with sanctions in place should they wish to leave the Saudi-backed circuit and return, while DP World Tour members face financial penalties for competing on LIV Golf.
It leaves PGA Tour players only able to compete against LIV Golf members in the majors, except for DP World Tour events, something McIlroy would prefer to see happen more frequently.
"I definitely think the additional tours, if you want to call them, have weathered the worst of the storm," McIlroy explained. "Again, my opinion is that golf would be better served if all the best players in the world played together a little more often than they do.
"We're really only seeing that four times a year at the major championships. But you're talking about a handful of guys that are missing, say, a Players Championship or some of the other bigger tournaments in the world.
"I'd like to see the best players play together maybe 10 times a year instead of four times a year. I would say that's the only negative I see to something coming together."
Ryder Cup stars Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton both feature in LIV Golf events but are still allowed to feature in DP World Tour events, with the appeal process ongoing after being sanctioned with fines for playing in conflicting events.
"I think any organisation or any members' organisation like this has a right to uphold its rules and regulations," McIlroy insisted.
"What the DP World Tour are doing is upholding their rules and regulations and we, as members, sign a document at the start of every year, that has you agree to these rules and regulations.
"The people that made the option to go to LIV knew what they were, so I don't see what's wrong with that, I guess, is my opinion."
On whether Rahm and Hatton should pay any potential fines to remain eligible for Europe's Ryder Cup team, McIlroy said: "Yeah, absolutely.
"We went really hard on the Americans about being paid to play the Ryder Cup, and we also said that we would pay to play in Ryder Cups. There's two guys that can prove it."
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