DUBLIN, Ohio — Rory McIlroy has not explained his decision to skip a third signature event and specifically this week’s Memorial Tournament, one of the PGA Tour’s signature events.
But he’s received backing from tournament host Jack Nicklaus and also PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, who on Wednesday lauded McIlroy’s support of other events following a “life-altering” season that included winning the Masters and completing a career Grand Slam.
“You look at the beauty of our model is that our players have the ability to select their schedule,” Monahan told a group of reporters at Muirfield Village Golf Club, site of this week’s Memorial Tournament. “Rory McIlroy I think has played this tournament every year since 2017 [13 times overall] and you look at the tournaments he has supported ... I don’t have any concern because you look at this, on balance, over time, his support of our tournaments and our partners is extraordinary.”
Monahan also said: “Look at the season that Rory has had. He’s had a life-altering season. He’s won the Players Championship, you win the Masters Tournament, you win the [career] Grand Slam and you win the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am ... ”
The PGA Tour is now in the third year of its signature event model that sees players who finished among the top 50 in the previous year’s FedEx Cup standings automatically qualifying for the 72-player events. The eight tournaments have $20 million purses and five of them have no 36-hole cut.
The Memorial along with the Genesis Invitational and the Arnold Palmer Invitational have a cut to the top 50 players and ties and anyone within 10 shots of the lead.
The concept was hastily put together in 2022 in response to the LIV Golf threat and as a way to reward the top players with guaranteed pay and big purses. McIlroy and Tiger Woods were among the players who pushed for the plan. Scottie Scheffler won four signature events last year. McIlroy won the Wells Fargo Championship last year and this year captured the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
In 2023, the first year of the program, players were required to play all but one of the events. When McIlroy skipped a second one—the RBC Heritage—he was essentially fined a portion of his Player Impact Program bonus, a system that no longer exists.
Last year, the Tour dropped the requirement to play the signature events. Scheffler missed last year’s Wells Fargo (now Truist) and did so again this year, electing to play the two Texas events. The winner of the PGA Championship and the defending Memorial Tournament winner is playing for a third straight week. McIlroy missed the season-opening Sentry and RBC Heritage signature events.
In a seven-week span starting at the Truist, there will be three signature events and two major championships.
McIlroy is playing next week’s RBC Canadian Open, a tournament he has won twice, and Nicklaus cited it as his preferred preparation for the following week’s U.S. Open.
“I don’t hold anything against Rory for that,” said Nicklaus, who is hosting the Memorial Tournament for the 50th time. “He did what he likes to play. I know he likes to play so many in a row. He likes to play the week before a U.S. Open. And so that’s what he's doing. It’s very difficult, very difficult.
“I’m a big Rory fan, I always have been. I’m sure that I will remain that way.”
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Jay Monahan Backs Rory McIlroy Over Skipping Memorial Tournament: ‘I Don’t Have Any Concern’.
