Rory McIlroy's PGA board opponents revealed as LIV Golf deal reluctance sees Northern Irishman locked out

The golf stars against Rory McIlroy's return to the PGA board have reportedly been revealed.

The Northern Irishman has decided against taking a seat on the board, with American Webb Simpson keen to step down and hand his place to McIlroy, who last year was keen to rejoin to try and speed up progress on a deal between the PGA and LIV Golf, but "only if people want me involved." But it turns out that the prospect of McIlroy's return was proving less than popular with board members, and he confirmed on Wednesday that he would in fact not be taking up a place on the board after all.

“There's been a lot of conversations. Sort of reminded me partly why I didn't," McIlroy said, referencing his departure. "I think it got pretty complicated and pretty messy, and I think with the way it happened, I think it opened up some old wounds and scar tissue from things that have happened before.

"There was a subset of people on the board that were maybe uncomfortable with me coming back on for some reason. … I think Webb just stays on and sees out his term, and I think he's gotten to a place where he's comfortable with doing that and I just sort of keep doing what I'm doing."

And now Golf Digest claims to know which of the big names were opposed to McIlroy's returns. They include the legendary Tiger Woods, Jordan Spieth and Patrick Cantlay. It's thought cantlay in particular is an opponent of McIlroy, who admitted that the pair aren't exactly best mates.

He said last year: “My relationship with Cantlay is average at best. We don’t have a ton in common and see the world quite differently.”

That came after an infamous spat between McIlroy and Cantlay's caddie Joe LaCava during the Ryder Cup. McIlroy added: "LaCava used to be a nice guy when he was caddying for Tiger, and now he’s caddying for that d--k he’s turned into a … I still wasn’t in a great headspace.”