McIlroy On The Environment, Sustainability...

I know what you cynics are thinking, this is the guy who unfairly blasted the governing bodies for spending money to research distance and the corresponding issues related to chasing overall golf course yardage.

So he has some consistencies to mop up when waxing on about sustainability all while reluctantly supporting bifurcation driven in part by cutting down on resource waste.

Here is Rory McIlroy, speaking at the DP World Championship about the guilt of flying private.

Q. The big talking point of the month has been environmentalism with COP26 and that sort of thing. You're somebody with a massive global footprint. You travel in private jets. You play a game that some people argue is not the most environmentally friendly. I've never heard you speak on that subject. What's your take?

RORY MCILROY: It's funny you say that. So two years ago, after I won in China, I flew back home privately, and it was just me on the plane. And I just got this massive sense of guilt come over me just because this can't be good and all that sort of stuff.

So we ended up reaching out to the GEO Foundation who do a lot of great sustainability things in golf, and that was the only sort of organization that we knew of that I guess could help us go in the right direction.

The GEO Foundation is an R&A partners so…

What I was trying to do is make all my travel -- I wouldn't self-profess to be an eco warrior, but I'm someone that doesn't want to damage the environment anyway, so how can I make my travel around the world neutral, how can I neutralise what I do.

And they came up with a few different ways that I can do that. So on top of what I pay to fly private, I pay quite a bit more on top of that to make sure I'm carbon neutral by the end of the year.

Hey maybe the PGA Tour will do the same with its fleet!

So it's something that I have a conscience about and I take it seriously, especially when you see some of these weather events that are happening. And I live in a part of the world where hurricanes are very prevalent and becoming more and more prevalent as the years go on. I think we can all play our part in some way or another.

Just how so many Floridians think!

Wait, there’s a follow up?

Q. How much of a talking point do you think it is amongst your peers, the other players? Is something that's going to gain momentum?

RORY MCILROY: Yeah, I think -- yeah. As you said, we play on big pieces of land that take up a lot of water and a lot of other things that could maybe be put to better use some could argue.

I think they’re studying that!

But at the end of the day, we decide to be professional golfers and hit a ball around a course. And I guess that's sort of the extent of it.

But as I said, we all can do our part. I certainly don't think it's something that I've talked to many of the players about really, but just from my conscience and my mind, I know that I'm at least -- when I do travel and I travel privately that I'm not doing it to the detriment of the world that we live in.

Next on the agenda: the size of the places you fly all over the world to play.