AVONDALE (AP) — For this week, at least, Rory McIlroy is focused on “fun” during his first visit to New Orleans for the PGA Tour’s lone team event.

McIlroy and teammate Shane Lowry have their restaurant reservations booked in this city renowned for its dining scene. A stroll down Bourbon Street also is on McIlroy’s agenda, so he can “say I’ve been there and I’ve got the T-shirt and then move on. I don’t think 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 said Wednesday, April 24, that he is interested in returning to the PGA Tour’s policy board, from which he resigned abruptly last November.

“I don’t think there’s been much progress made in the last eight months, and I was hopeful that there would be,” McIlroy said, alluding his goal of seeing a formalized unification of the PGA Tour and upstart, Saudi Arabia-funded LIV Golf.

“I think I could be helpful to the process,” McIlroy said. “But only if people want me involved.”

The PGA Tour and LIV are in merger talks, but they have been protracted, with no clear end in sight. Both tours have continued to operate independently, keeping many of the top names in golf from competing against one another for most of the golf calendar — major tournaments (Masters, US Open, British Open and PGA Championship) excepted.

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.

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-yearold 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 sort of relax and play under maybe not the amount of pressure or the stress that we’ve both been under the last couple of weeks I think is a nice 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, meanwhile, sounded no less excited to be able to lean on McIlroy’s game at the Pete Dye-designed TPC Louisiana, where the winning team will earn $2.57 million (about $1.29 million each).

“Rory is probably like No. 1 on people’s lists to come play here with,” Lowry said. “We’ll be good for each other on the course. We’ll enjoy doing it, which is a big part of it as well.”

McIlroy and Lowry are one of several high-profile pairs among the 80 teams at the Zurich.

Others include: 2022 champions Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay; Matt Fitzpatrick and younger brother Alex; Collin Morikawa and Kurt Kitayama; Billy Horschel and Tyson Alexander; Sahith Theegala and Will Zalatoris; Fancesco Molinari and Luke Donald; and defending champions Nick Hardy and Davis Riley.