Rory McIlroy: Merger is positive but can't help feeling 'like a sacrificial lamb'

Rory McIlroy learned about the landscape-altering PGA Tour agreement mere hours before every other player.

McIlroy said he received a text Monday night from Jimmy Dunne – an influential policy board member and a key architect of the deal – asking to speak with him by phone early Tuesday morning. They talked at 6:30 a.m., and Dunne ran McIlroy through the framework agreement – that the Tour had agreed to join forces with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and the DP World Tour to create a new, for-profit entity.

McIlroy knew that discussions between the two warring sides had been ongoing; Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said Tuesday he’d had four in-person meetings with PIF governor Yasir…