Exclusive report:McIlroy is ready to return to the PGA Tour policy board and excited to enjoy his first..

Rory McIlroy is having “fun” during his first visit to New Orleans for the PGA Tour’s only team event.

McIlroy and colleague Shane Lowry have made restaurant reservations in this city known for its eating culture. McIlroy also plans to take a trip along Bourbon Street so that he can “say I’ve been there and I have the T-shirt and then move on.” I’m not sure I want to spend too much time down there.

Soon, however, the No. 2-ranked golfer in the world will be ready to resume exerting his considerable influence over serious matters surrounding the fractured state of men’s professional golf.

McIlroy stated on Wednesday that he is interested in returning to the PGA Tour’s policy board, from which he abruptly departed in November.

“I don’t think there’s been much progress in the last eight months, and I was hoping there would be,” McIlroy said, alluding to his desire to see the PGA Tour and upstart, Saudi Arabia-funded LIV Golf formally merged.

“I believe I could contribute to the process,” McIlroy stated. “But only if people want me involved.” The PGA Tour and LIV are in merger talks, but they have been drawn out with no obvious outcome in sight. Both tours have continued to function independently, preventing many of the world’s top golfers from competing against one another for the most of the golf season, with the exception of major tournaments (Masters, US Open, British Open, and PGA Championship).

Meanwhile, the PGA Tour has taken on Strategic Sports Group as a minority investor in a deal that could be worth as much as $3 billion.

Webb Simpson, one of the six player directors on the PGA Tour board and PGA Tour Enterprises board, has submitted a letter saying that he wants to resign as a player director, but only if McIlroy replaces him, according to a person who has seen the letter.

The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Tuesday because the letter was not made public.

After his pro-am round at the Zurich Classic on Wednesday, McIlroy claimed he began to consider returning to the board after Simpson approached him about it. “I said, ‘Look, if it was something that other people wanted, I would gladly take that seat,’ and that was the conversation that we had,” McIlroy said in a statement. “I feel like I care a lot, and I have some fairly decent experience and relationships within the game, as well as the larger ecology and everything that’s going on.

But, at the end of the day, it’s not entirely up to me to simply rejoin the board,” he continued. “There’s a process that has to be followed.” The other board members are Patrick Cantlay, Peter Malnati, Adam Scott, Jordan Spieth, and Tiger Woods. McIlroy believes a full merger of the PGA and LIV circuits is “the only way forward for the game of golf.” He stated that he hopes to promote compromise while also “helping people see the benefits of what unification could do for the game and for this tour in particular.”

We obviously realize the game is not unified right now for a reason, and there’s still some hard feelings and things that need to be addressed,” McIlroy said. “But I think at this point, for the good of the game, we all need to put those feelings aside and all move forward together.”

In the meantime, the 34-year-old McIlroy, of Northern Ireland, sounds eager to participate in what, for him, is a new event while taking in one of American’s more culturally distinctive cities.

This is my 17th year as a professional golfer, and to be able to still do things for the first time like play in this event and experience something like this is pretty cool,” McIlroy said.

McIlroy and Shane Lowry, a 37-year-old Irishman, have been teammates before in the Ryder Cup. So, their partnership at the Zurich Classic is not entirely unfamiliar to them.

“We thought it would be fun to team up together again in something like this,” McIlroy said. “Just really excited to spend the week with Shane.

To be able to relax and play without the amount of pressure or stress that we’ve both been under in the last few weeks, I believe, is a good thing,” McIlroy said. “It’s nice to be able to rely on a teammate every now and again and bail you out of trouble or know that you don’t have to play perfect golf because you’ve got someone right there beside you.” Lowry, for his part, sounded as excited to be able to rely on McIlroy’s performance at the Pete Dye-designed TPC Louisiana, where the winning team will collect $2.57 million (roughly $1.29 million each).

“Rory is probably at the top of people’s lists to come play here with,” Lowry said. “We’ll be good to one other on the course. We’ll have a good time doing it, which is very important.” McIlroy and Lowry are one of several high-profile partnerships among the 80 teams in Zurich.