Rory McIlroy Dives Deeper Into Private Equity
Fresh off finally securing a career grand slam with a thrilling win at the Masters, Rory McIlroy, the world's second-ranked golfer, is rounding out another corner of his life: investing.
Mr. McIlroy's investment firm, Symphony Ventures, is teaming up with the private equity firm TPG to start TPG Sports, an investment fund that will place bets on businesses across the sports industry.
Mr. McIlroy started Symphony Ventures with his business partner, Sean O'Flaherty, in 2019. Both men will serve as operating partners for TPG Sports.
'We were talking about what's the next step for us,' Mr. McIlroy said in an interview. 'The timing was right.'
Mr. McIlroy's increasing immersion in business is not uncommon among golf's greats; Tiger Woods, Greg Norman and Jack Nicklaus have all built big business portfolios around golf and beyond. But his partnership with TPG comes as record dollars are flowing into sports. Competition by media companies over premium live content has driven up valuations of traditional teams and created demand for new ones.
'Sports is undergoing a big transformation,' Mr. McIlroy said. 'There is a lot of investment going into the sports world and trying to make it more professional — and trying to bring it into the 21st century.'
Mr. McIlroy has been taking advantage of those opportunities. Investments by Symphony Ventures include Golf Genius, a golf tournament software platform, and Puttery, an immersive mini-golf experience. In 2022, Mr. McIlroy also co-founded a company that helped create TGL, a team-based high-tech golf league that has drawn investors like Arthur Blank, a co-founder of Home Depot and the owner of the Atlanta Falcons, and Steven Cohen, the owner of the New York Mets.
Mr. McIlroy's investment focus led him to TPG. The firm brought him on as an investor in some of its prior deals, like its stake in Troon, the golf course management company, in 2021.
TPG is making its official foray into sports as investors face a volatile landscape, with President Trump's tariffs rattling the stock market and analysts saying a recession is becoming more likely.
'Probably the best opportunities that we've seen and invested in over the past 30 years have also come at moments of uncertainty,' Todd Sisitsky, the president of TPG, said. TPG is launching TPG Sports with a secured investment commitment from Lunate, an investment fund based in Abu Dhabi. TPG did not disclose the size of that investment.
TPG manages more than $200 billion in assets and has extensive experience in the media industry, which is increasingly entwined with sports. Among those deals are DirecTV and Creative Artists Agency.
Mr. McIlroy brings a different sort of experience. As a former member of the influential PGA Tour Policy Board, he was briefly on the front lines of deal talks between the PGA Tour and the Saudi sovereign wealth fund. (The talks have since stalled.) He stepped down in 2023 to focus on golf, his family — and his growing investing portfolio.
'I just felt like something had to give,' Mr. McIlroy said at the time.
Some of his business bets may take years to blossom. For now, Mr. McIlroy is looking for a win at this month's P.G.A. Championship.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
42 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Is a $5,000 DOGE stimulus check a real thing? What we know
In February, President Donald Trump said he was considering a plan to pay out $5,000 stimulus checks to American taxpayers from the savings identified by billionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Are they happening? No official plan or schedule for such a payout has been released, and a decision on the checks would have to come from Congress, which has so far been cool to the idea. And there have been questions as to how much DOGE has actually saved. The idea was floated by Azoria investment firm CEO James Fishback, who suggested on Musk's social media platform X that Trump and Musk should "should announce a 'DOGE Dividend'" from the money saved from reductions in government waste and workforce since it was American taxpayer money in the first place. He even submitted a proposal for how it would work, with a timeline for after the expiration of DOGE in July 2026. "At $2 trillion in DOGE savings and 78 million tax-paying households, this is a $5,000 refund per household, with the remaining used to pay down the national debt," he said in a separate post. Musk replied, "Will check with the President." "We're considering giving 20% of the DOGE savings to American citizens and 20% to paying down the debt," Trump said in a during the Saudi-sponsored FII PRIORITY Summit in Miami Beach the same month. DOGE has dismantled entire federal agencies, wiped out government contracts and led the firings of tens of thousands of federal workers, leaving many agencies struggling to continue operations. DOGE checks? Elon Musk dodges DOGE stimulus check question during Wisconsin rally: Here's what he said. Fishbeck suggested that the potential refund go only to households that are net-income taxpayers, or households that pay more in taxes than they get back. The Pew Research Center said that most Americans with an adjusted gross income of under $40,000 effectively pay no federal income tax. They would not be eligible. If DOGE achieves Musk's initial goal of stripping $2 trillion from U.S. government spending by 2026, Fishback's plan was for $5,000 per household, or 20% of the savings divided by the number of eligible households. If DOGE doesn't hit the goal, Fishback said the amount should be adjusted accordingly. 'So again, if the savings are only $1 trillion, which I think is awfully low, the check goes from $5,000 to $2,500,' Fishback said during a podcast appearance. 'If the savings are only $500 billion, which, again, is really, really low, then the [checks] are only $1,250.' However, while Musk talked about saving $2 trillion in federal spending during Trump's campaign, he lowered the goal to $1 trillion after Trump assumed office and said in March he was on pace to hit that goal by the end of May. At a Cabinet meeting in April, Musk lowered the projected savings further to $150 billion in fiscal year 2026. Musk left the White House at the end of May when his designation as a "special government employee" ended. DOGE, the advisory group he created, is expected to continue without him. That depends on who you ask. On its website, DOGE claims to have saved an estimated $175 billion as of May 30, "a combination of asset sales, contract and lease cancellations and renegotiations, fraud and improper payment deletions, grant cancellations, interest savings, programmatic changes, regulatory savings, and workforce reductions." The site says that works out to $1,086.96 saved per taxpayer. However, many of DOGE's claims have been exaggerated and several of the initiatives to slash agency workforces have been challenged in court. DOGE has been accused of taking credit for contracts that were canceled before DOGE was created, failing to factor in funds the government is required to pay even if a contract is canceled, and tallying every contract by the most that could possibly be spent on it even when nothing near that amount had been obligated. The website list has been changed as the media pointed out errors, such as a claim that an $8 million savings was actually $8 billion. On May 30, CNN reported that one of its reporters found that less than half the $175 billion figure was backed up with even basic documentation, making verification difficult if not impossible. Some of the changes may also end up costing taxpayers more, such as proposed slashes to the Internal Revenue Service that experts say would mean less tax revenue generated, resulting in a net cost of about $6.8 billion. Over the next 10 years, if IRS staffing stays low, the cumulative cost in uncollected taxes would hit $159 billion, according to the nonpartisan Budget Lab at Yale University. The per-taxpayer claim on the website is also inflated, CNN said, as it's based on '161 million individual federal taxpayers' and doesn't seem to include married people filing jointly. This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: DOGE dividends: Will American taxpayers get a $5,000 check?
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Rory McIlroy a laughingstock after PGA Tour career worst
The post Rory McIlroy a laughingstock after PGA Tour career worst appeared first on ClutchPoints. Almost two months ago, Rory McIlroy completed his quest for a career grand slam, winning the Masters Tournament. That was already his third win of the 2025 season. McIlroy won both the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and the PLAYERS Championship. It appeared his game had finally reached another level. Advertisement With six days until the U.S. Open tees off at Oakmont, that no longer seems the case. McIlroy flamed out at the PGA Championship and controversially opted not to speak to the media after each round. The Northern Irishman then skipped Jack Nicklaus' Memorial Tournament, which turned heads. This week, he was back on the course at the RBC Canadian Open, an event he has won twice. Not only did the familiarity with TPC Toronto not help get his game back on track, but he is having the worst tournament of his PGA Tour career. McIlroy carded a 1-over 71 on Thursday. That placed him below the projected cut line entering the second round but only by a couple of strokes. Then Friday happened. Advertisement With three holes to play, McIlroy sits at 9-over for the tournament. He is 150th in the field out of 153 golfers. The worst 36-hole finish of McIlroy's career was a tie for 142nd, per Underdog Golf. He will undoubtedly be heading home early. As his round played out, fans took to social media with some truly wild reactions. 'Rory McIlroy has (understandably) mentally checked out following his Masters win. Such a shame considering the form he was in pre-Augusta.,' one fan posted on X, formerly Twitter. Even Barstool Sports' Riggs could not contain himself. 'Rory F***ing McIlroy you are an emotional rollercoaster what is wrong with you I love you so much.' Advertisement Following four straight pars to begin his round, everything went off the rails on the par-4 5th. The five-time major champion carded a snowman eight for a quadruple bogey. From there, he bogeyed 8, 10, and 13 while double-bogeying the par-3 12th. He made his first birdie of the day on 15, prompting the most perfect troll reaction ever. Barring some double eagles coming in, this will mark the worst 36-hole finish of McIlroy's career, just in time for the U.S. Open. Related: Rockies' Scottie Scheffler quip after ending 57-series sweep drought
2 hours ago
McIlroy tumbles out of Canadian Open with a 78. Champ takes 2-shot lead into the weekend
CALEDON, Ontario -- Masters champion Rory McIlroy tumbled out of the RBC Canadian Open on Friday with his worst round in nearly a year, with Cameron Champ taking a two-stroke lead into the weekend in the final event before the U.S. Open. McIlroy shot an 8-over 78, making a mess of the fifth hole with a quadruple-bogey 8 in his highest score since also shooting 78 last year in the first round of the British Open. He had a double bogey on No. 11, four bogeys and two birdies. 'Of course it concerns me,' McIlroy said. 'You don't want to shoot high scores like the one I did today. Still, I felt like I came here obviously with a new driver thinking that that sort of was going to be good and solve some of the problems off the tee, but it didn't.' At 9 over, the two-time Canadian Open winner was 21 strokes behind Champ on the rain-softened North Course at TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley. 'Obviously, going to Oakmont next week, what you need to do more than anything else there is hit fairways," McIlroy said. "Still sort of searching for the sort of missing piece off the tee.' Champ had four birdies in a 68 in the morning a day after opening with a 62. He was at 12 under, playing the first 36 holes without a bogey. 'It's firmed up a little bit, but fairly similar to yesterday,' Champ said. 'The fairways I feel like were firming up a little bit. The greens slightly, but pretty close to how they were yesterday.' The three-time PGA Tour winner got one of the last spots in the field after being the eighth alternate Friday when the commitments closed. 'I definitely didn't think I was getting in,' Champ said. Andrew Putnam was second after a bogey-free 62 on the course hosting the event for the first time. He won the 2018 Barracuda Championship for his lone tour title. 'I hit a lot of fairways, hit a lot of good iron shots, too, and my putter was on fire,' Putnam said. 'Pretty much did everything right. Didn't really make many mistakes.' Thorbjorn Olesen of Denmark, tied for the first-round lead with Cristobal Del Solar after a 61, had a 70 drop into a tie for third at 9 under with Canadians Richard Lee (64) and Nick Taylor (65) and France's Victor Perez (65). Taylor won the 2023 event at Oakdale. 'Hung in there,' Taylor said. 'Making a birdie on the last was important to end the day nicely.' Del Solar was 8 under after a 71. Shane Lowry (68) also was 8 under with Ryan Fox (66), Jake Knapp (69), Sam Burns (66) and Matteo Manassero (65).
