Rory McIlroy has opted to skip the first of the three FedEx Cup Playoff events.
The Masters champion was not listed in the field for the FedEx St. Jude Championship at TPC Southwind, which begins next Thursday.
McIlroy, who finished T68 at last year’s tournament, has been enjoying a break since finishing T7 at last month’s final Major of the season, The Open.
Days after that performance at Royal Portrush, McIlroy was videoed in St Tropez in France, while he also visited Sunningdale to take in the final round of the Senior Open, which was won by his friend Padraig Harrington.
After The Open, McIlroy outlined his intentions to take a break from golf for a few weeks, saying: “I feel like being back in Europe for a bit was a nice reset. Yeah, I feel like I'm getting back to where I want to be, and we've still got a lot of golf left this year with obviously Ryder Cup being the big one in there in September.
“And just make sure I'm - I don't want to play too much leading up to that because I want to be fresh. So I'm looking forward to a few weeks off here.”
The breather will now go on for at least another week, although it is unlikely to have a big impact on his involvement in the Playoffs further on.
McIlroy is second in the season-long FedEx Cup points standings behind Scottie Scheffler, with 3,444.
While an appearance at the FedEx St. Jude Championship would have seen that number increase, potentially even surpassing Scheffler with a win, he only needs to be in the top 50 of the standings by the end of the tournament to progress to the BMW Championship.
Even without participating in the event, McIlroy is assured of his place in the second of the three Playoffs, while he only needs to be in the top 30 after the BMW Championship to guarantee a spot at the finale, the Tour Championship.
Considering the lack of necessity for McIlroy to tee it up in the first Playoff, it is perhaps not surprising that he has opted to continue his break from competitive action, particularly given his upcoming schedule.
Following the Playoffs, McIlroy will be back in Europe in September for more golf, including the Irish Open and the BMW PGA Championship.
After that, it will be back to the States for the Ryder Cup.
He is then expected to play at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in Scotland in October, before his first-ever start in India at the DP World India Championship ahead of two events in the United Arab Emirates for the climax of the DP World Tour’s Race to Dubai.
He will finish the year with an appearance at the Australian Open in December.
In the weeks following his victory at The Masters in April, which completed his career Grand Slam, McIlroy admitted he had been struggling to motivate himself.
After the US Open, he said he was hoping his appearance in his homeland for The Open would get him back on track.
He explained: “I think, look, if I can't get motivated to get up for an Open Championship at home, then I don't know what can motivate me. Yeah, as I said, I just need to get myself in the right frame of mind.”
On his way to his T7, it was clear something had indeed returned, and, with another week to refresh before returning to competitive action, the hope will be that McIlroy will hit the ground running with so much golf left to play.
