RORY MCILROY has claimed he would rather retire than play in LIV Golf events.

The PGA Tour and LIV Golf have agreed to merge after a year of feuding.

And McIlroy was asked about the prospect of playing LIV Golf events amid a hearing in the US Senate that is scrutinising the merger.

Included in the hearing were documents that proposed McIlroy and Tiger Woods being given ownership of a LIV team, as well as a requirement that the pair play in ten events.

McIlroy, 34, was asked about the proposals – which were rejected by the tour.

He said: “If LIV Golf was the last place to play golf on earth I would retire. That’s how I feel about it.

“There’s quite a bit of apathy towards everything at the moment.

“There wasn’t a lot of new information there for me (in the Senate hearing), there maybe was for other people, but as I said, I’ve almost been too close to it over the last year and a bit so it’s nice to be able to try to distance myself a bit from it.

“I think I’m apathetic to all the noise around it and as long as the tournaments that I play keep on existing I’ll be very happy to play them and be a professional golfer and try to get a little bit closer every day to trying to master my craft.

“The thing that I’ve realised is, no matter what I do or say or try to show leadership, I’m going to be just fine.

“I’ve tried to step up for maybe the guys that didn’t have a voice early on, but I think with everything that’s transpired over the last few weeks the players are going to find themselves more and more at the table to try to get whatever that is they want out of it.

“Again, as long as I get to play the golf that I’ve known over the last 15 years of my career, I’ll be happy.”