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McIlroy on Kisner's $10m India claim: 'How would he know that?'
Kevin Kisner said Rory McIlroy played in New Delhi for '$10 million'. The real fee is undisclosed; McIlroy's prize money for a tie for 42nd was €18,888.97.
Kevin Kisner put a number on Rory McIlroy’s appearance fee for the DP World India Championship in a clip from the Fore Play podcast posted on 16 October: “He doesn’t want to globally expand in India; he wants to get his $10 million bucks and go play in India.” The fee has not been made public. If Kisner’s figure were right, it would be two and a half times the tournament’s $4 million prize fund.
McIlroy’s prize money for the week was €18,888.97. He played without a driver and closed with a 74 on Sunday to finish in a seven-way tie for 42nd at −4, with Justin Rose, 17 shots behind Eugenio Chacarra.
According to GOLF.com, McIlroy, Rose and Tommy Fleetwood were all paid undisclosed sums to play at Delhi Golf Club, and the deals included promotional work: a “Diwali with the Stars” dinner and, for McIlroy, an appearance at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in New Delhi earlier in the week.
At the forum McIlroy said the event could bring golf to more people in India, and criticised LIV Golf for paying players who were already wealthy instead of investing in the game. Kisner was responding to that remark. On the podcast he added that he would take the money too, and that McIlroy had chosen an event where he could not use his driver.
Reporters put the comments to McIlroy in New Delhi. “How would he know that?” he said, without confirming or denying the figure. “People can be paid to come play in a tournament but at the same time do it from a place of genuine interest.”
McIlroy is third in the Race to Dubai, 948.03 points behind Chacarra.
Sources
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