RORY MCILROY reportedly had a tense hour-long phone call with Jordan Spieth.

The Northern Irishman is said to have come to heads with the American over the future of the PGA Tour.

The PGA Tour remains in talks with LIV Golf and its Saudi financial backers over a possible merger.

Little progress has been made between the rival organisations since last June.

Since last year, the PGA Tour has managed to add a £2.4billion investment from the Strategic Sports Group [SSG].

After this was made, Spieth came out and claimed that the PGA Tour was less in need of the merger.

However, McIlroy has softened his stance against the idea of a merger and further investment.

He has tried to remove himself from negotiations and was recently replaced on the Tour’s Player Advisory Council by Spieth.

Sports Illustrated has claimed that McIlroy has left a group chat that included some of the PGA’s best players.

McIlroy told the publication that he wanted to “remove himself” from the matter after a tense conversation with Spieth.

He said: “I just want to remove myself from the fray a little bit.

“My thing was if I’m the original investor that thought that they were going to get this deal done back in July, and I’m hearing a board member say that, you know, we don’t really need them.

“Now, how are they going to think about that, what are they gonna feel about that?

“They are still sitting out there with hundreds of billions of dollars, if not trillions, that they’re gonna pour into sport.

“And I know what Jordan was saying, I absolutely know what he was saying and what he was trying to say.

“But if I were PIF [Public Investment Fund] and I was hearing that coming from here, the day after doing this SSG deal, it wouldn’t have made me too happy, I guess?”

The relationship between LIV Golf and PGA is strained at the moment after Jon Rahm was snapped up by the Saudi-backed competition.

The Spaniard became the highest paid athlete in the world when he signed a £450million deal with LIV.