LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Rory McIlroy said if LIV Golf was modeled like the Indian Premier League and staged over two months then he would consider playing in it.

The 34-year-old Northern Irishman has been a vocal opponent of the Saudi Arabia-funded LIV Golf once saying he would retire rather than play in it "if it was the last place to play golf on earth."

However, he has toned it down of late, especially after his friend, fellow Ryder Cup star and formerly a stringent critic of LIV Jon Rahm decamped and is reportedly set to earn upwards of $566.4 million.

Attracting some of world cricket's top stars with bumper salaries, the pioneering IPL helped make Twenty20 hugely popular, attracting hundreds of millions of viewers and spawning copycat events worldwide.

Last June, the Board of Control for Cricket in India sold the broadcast rights for the next five IPL seasons to global media giants for an eye-watering $6.2 billion.

LIV's circuit is based around team events with its 48 players split into 12 teams.

"I would love LIV to turn into the IPL of golf," McIlroy told the Stick to Football Podcast.

"They take two months off the calendar. You go and do this team stuff and it's a bit different and is a different format."

"If they were to do something like that I would say 'yeah that sounds like fun' because you are working within the ecosystem."