Rory McIlroy Excited For 'Unbelievable' 2024 Golf Schedule

Speaking ahead of the DP World Tour's flagship BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, Rory McIlroy hinted at an "exciting" and "unbelievable" 2024 golf season.

"I think what's going to happen is 2023 is going to look pretty similar to how the last few years have looked but 2023 is going to be a bridge to 2024; '24 is when there's going to be a lot of stuff happening schedule-wise," he said.

Earlier this year, the PGA Tour and DP World Tour announced a 13 year joint venture partnership as the two Tours bid to counter the threat of the Greg Norman-fronted LIV Golf Series. One of the most significant moves of the arrangement will see the leading ten players on the end-of-season DP World Tour rankings earn PGA Tour cards for the following season, in addition to those already exempt, from 2023. It will also result in guaranteed price fund increases across the next five years. 

"I think that's [2024] when you're going to start to see the benefits of this partnership," McIlroy said, as he described the strategic alliance as a "massive help" to the DP World Tour. "There's a lot of moving parts to this. I think by giving everyone 15 months to get their head around it and put their heads together and come up with what I think is going to be an unbelievable calendar for golf in 2024, I think that's a great thing."

PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan announced unprecedented changes ahead of the FedEx Cup finale at East Lake, which included the introduction of four elevated events for the 2023 season, taking the total to 12.

The Northern Irishman believes Europe is a likely location for one, or more, of those events: "If we are talking about about elevated events and bringing the best people together, I think for the benefit of the global game, a handful of those events need to be in Europe.

"I've said that from the start. This can't be American-centric. This has to be with this region in mind, with wherever we want to go and play, I think that has to happen but I think the partnership between the PGA Tour and the European Tour is mutual beneficial because I think by partnering with the DP World Tour, the PGA Tour unlocks that global nature of the game that they have not really been able to get a stronghold over."

DP World Tour CEO Keith Pelley earlier rubbished Sergio Garcia's claims it was the fifth-best Tour on the planet and branded suggestions it had become a feeder Tour as “nonsense”, but added that he was working to "transform our schedule in 2024." 

Pelley even hinted that the 2024 schedule may include events outside of the "normal" 72-hole format: "I think there is room for innovation, and you'll see that next year. You'll see that in some of our schedule in 2024. But the magic and the history of the game is still the 72-hole tournament."