Rory McIlroy has pulled out of this week’s PGA Tour event in the wake of his disappointing performance at the Masters – and his previous comments might explain why.
McIlroy will not compete at the RBC Heritage at Hilton Head in South Carolina this week after withdrawing from the event. No reason has been given for his absence, which comes after he missed the cut at the Masters to fail in pursuit of completing a career Grand Slam.
The 33-year-old Northern Irishman should have teed off in South Carolina on Thursday, with the RBC Heritage one of the PGA Tour’s 17 designated events. That status means it is mandatory for the top players on the tour to compete, unless they have a valid medical exemption.
McIlroy and his fellow top-20 ranked players are liable to lose a percentage of their income from the Player Impact Program (PIP) if they don’t compete in mandatory events. The PIP was set up to reward the top players who help boost engagement and publicity of the PGA Tour. It earned McIlroy £7.5million in 2022.
Players are only allowed to skip one designated event per season. The world number three could find himself in hot water with the tour because he missed the Sentry Tournament of Champions, the first designated event of the season, in January.
McIlroy did not speak to the media after shooting rounds of 72 and 77 to miss the cut at last week's Masters by two strokes. But his objections to the PGA Tour’s mandatory event scheme have been made public thanks to Netflix ’s “Full Swing” documentary.
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Speaking to PGA Tour executive Andy Pazder about PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan at a players’ meeting in August, McIlroy outlined the prevailing feeling on the issue. “I don’t know if Jay has communicated this to you but the mandatory [clause] – there’s been a lot of blowback on that by the guys in the room,” McIlroy said.
“They were sort of blindsided by it. That’s sort of the feeling. We knew there were going to be four new elevated events but we didn’t know they were going to be mandatory.”
McIlroy is not the only player to have withdrawn from the RBC Heritage. Former world number one Jason Day, as well as Alex Noren and the injured Will Zalatoris, have also pulled out.
Three-time Major winner Jordan Speith will play at the RBC Heritage, which has a purse of $20m (£16.1m), but he expressed concern about the packed schedule after finishing tied fourth at the Masters.
"I think I played way too much golf into this," Spieth said. "I came in mentally fatigued, and you overwork this week every year. I played way too much golf in the last… I mean, this is eight out of 10 weeks. So I need to change my schedule up going forward to be a little sharper this week. I think that has a lot to do with it."
