Chubby Chandler, former manager of Rory McIlroy, has backed Kevin Kisner's claim that the Northern Irish golfer's key motivation for playing in the DP India Championship was the appearance fee — though McIlroy himself insists both things can be true.

Kevin Kisner made a valid point when he suggested that one of the primary reasons Rory McIlroy was playing in the India Open was for the appearance fee he would pocket.

That is the view of McIlroy's former agent Andrew 'Chubby' Chandler, who believes Kisner's remarks were spot on.

McIlroy has competed at the DP India Championship for two consecutive years, and made an appearance at the Bloomberg New Economic Forum in New Delhi, where he expressed his delight at being in the region to help grow the sport.

Kisner, who served as Ryder Cup vice-captain to Keegan Bradley last year, poured scorn on this notion, claiming that McIlroy's assertions about wanting to play a global schedule to grow the game were "dog-s**t," adding: "He doesn't want to globally expand in India, he wants to get his $10m (€8.9m) and go play in India."

McIlroy dismissed Kisner's remarks when the subject was raised with him, questioning "how would he know?" what his motivations were for playing in India, before asserting that both things could be true: he could be receiving a substantial appearance fee while also genuinely wanting to compete in places where the sport is flourishing.

In Chandler's opinion, Kisner's assumption was likely accurate, though he doubts his former client will pay much heed to the American's comments.

"They're all singing off the same hymn sheet. Not one of them will say, "I'm here because I've got paid $500,000 to be here. " Rory could put a nought on that," he told BetBrothers.

"It goes back to being a business and making your money how you make it. One of the reasons Rory wouldn't sign for LIV would be the fact that he can make enough money without being paid $300 million by LIV. That was the balance they all had: how much they got offered and how much they can make without it.

"Now, if Rory had signed with LIV, he wouldn't have got the deals that he's got now. DP World and those sorts of deals. He wouldn't have got them if he was a LIV player. The LIV players haven't got massive sponsorships because LIV wouldn't let them have them."

Chandler went on to say: "It's true [what Kisner said], so I don't think he'd be surprised. I think he'd be chuckling and thinking, "Well, of course that's why I'm here. " And he can't say anything else either. He's not going to turn around and say, "I'm here because I'm getting paid millions of dollars.

" He's going to say to the press, "I'm here to spread the game. "".

"In a funny sort of way, DP World are taking over from where PIF was. DP World are beginning to spread the word around of golf. To me, if DP World follow the trend now, they should sponsor a lot of national Opens. You should have the DP World Spanish Open, you should have the DP World French Open, and that would do an awful lot. Now they've got Rory as a flag bearer. That also would work.

"I have no idea how much those two facilities he's got will cost, but it will be multi-million dollars and probably in that deal will be that he has to play in two DP World tournaments or something.

"That's probably why he's in India; that's probably part of the same deal. If that's the case, then the DP World Tour will grow exponentially like DP World will.

"It's an unbelievably good marketing activation that DP World is doing. Like I say, if you start sponsoring fifteen national opens around the world, you're suddenly a big name. Well, they are a big name now, aren't they? Who had ever heard of DP World before they did the European Tour? Nobody."