Rory McIlroy believes a merger between the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and LIV Golf would be "very difficult" to carry out.

LIV Golf, which is funded by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), came onto the golf scene in October 2021, luring players away from the PGA.

The PGA, DP World Tour and LIV all agreed to a merger, yet negotiations are still ongoing after almost two-and-a-half years.

McIlroy stated that golf would benefit from "unification", but struggles to see it happening due to the spending habits of LIV.

"You see some of these other sports that have been fractured for so long," McIlroy told United States news channel CNBC.

"You look at boxing, for example, or you look at what's happened in motor racing in the United States with Indy and Nascar and everything else. I think for golf in general, it would be better if there was unification.

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"But I just think with what's happened over the last few years, it's just going to be very difficult to be able to do that.

"As someone who supports the traditional structure of men's professional golf, we have to realise we were trying to deal with people that were acting, in some ways, irrationally, just in terms of the capital they were allocating and the money they were spending.

"A lot of these guys' contracts are up. They're going to ask for the same number or an even bigger number. LIV have spent five or six billion US dollars, and they're going to have to spend another five or six just to maintain where they are.

"I'm way more comfortable being on the PGA Tour side than on their side, but who knows what'll happen."