With a career grand slam in the end, he secured a thrilling victory at the Masters, and world's No. 2 golfer Rory McIlroy concluded another corner of his life, the investment.
McIlroy's investment company, Symphony Ventures, will work with private equity firm TPG to launch TPG Sports, an investment fund that bets on companies across the sports industry.
McIlroy began his symphony with his business partner Sean O'Flaherty in 2019. Both men act as operating partners for TPG Sports.
“We were talking about the next step,” McIlroy said in an interview. “The timing was right.”
McIlroy's increased immersion in the business is not uncommon among golf greats. Tiger Woods, Greg Norman and Jack Nicklaus all built large business portfolios in Golf and beyond. However, his partnership with TPG is due to record dollars flowing into the sport. Competition by media companies via premium live content has encouraged traditional team reviews and created demand for new teams.
“Sports is undergoing a huge change,” McIlroy said. “There's a lot of investment in the world of sports, and we're trying to make it more professional and bring it into the 21st century.”
McIlroy is taking advantage of these opportunities. Investments from Symphony Ventures include Golf Genius, a golf tournament software platform, and Puttery, an immersive mini-golf experience. In 2022, McIlroy co-founded a company that helped create TGL, a team-based high-tech golf league that attracted investors like Arthur Blank, owner of Atlanta Falcons, and New York Mets owner Steven Cohen.
McIlroy's investment focus led him to the TPG. The company brought him as an investor in some of its previous deals in 2021, including stocks in golf course management company Troon.
TPG has made its official foray into sports as investors face a volatile landscape, with President Trump's tariffs rattling stock markets, and analysts say a recession is on the rise.
“The best opportunities we've seen and invested over the last 30 years are probably coming at a moment of uncertainty,” said Todd Sissitsky, president of TPG. TPG is launching TPG Sports with a secure investment commitment from Lunate, an Abu Dhabi-based investment fund. TPG did not disclose the size of its investment.
TPG manages more than $200 billion in assets, has extensive experience in the media industry and is increasingly entangled with sports. These transactions include DirectV and Creative Artists Agency.
McIlroy brings another kind of experience. As a former member of the influential PGA Tour Policy Board, he was easily present at the forefront of trading talks between the PGA Tour and the Saudi Arabian Sovereign Wealth Fund. (The discussions have since been stuck.) He resigned in 2023 to focus on golf, his family, and his growing investment portfolio.
“It felt like I had to give something,” McIlroy said at the time.
Some of his business bets may take years for the flowers to bloom. For now, McIlroy is hoping to win this month's PGA Championship.
