The PGA Tour’s signature event model that Rory McIlroy helped to create in 2022 in response to the LIV Golf League incursion into men’s golf appears to not be working for some players—most notably Rory McIlroy.
RELATED: PGA Tour makes HUGE changes to format for the season-ending Tour Championship
The reigning Masters champion is skipping this week’s 50th edition of the Memorial Tournament, marking the third time this year that the No. 2 player in the world is skipping one of the $US20 million limited-field events. On Tuesday, tournament founder and host Jack Nicklaus said he was surprised by McIlroy’s decision to bypass the Memorial in favour of next week’s RBC Canadian Open leading into the US Open but stopped short of any criticism of a player who has sought his guidance through the years.
A day later, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan essentially cut McIlroy considerable slack when he was asked if he had any concerns about McIlroy’s scheduling decisions.
“The beauty of our model is that our players have the ability to select their schedule,” Monahan told a small group of media Wednesday morning at Muirfield Village Golf Club. “What Rory McIlroy has done, I think he’s played in this tournament every year since 2017. And you look at the tournaments that he’s 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.”
The signature event model was rolled out in 2023 and originally called for all of the top players to compete. That mandate was quickly altered to allow for one dispensation, and last year there was no requirement to play in any of the eight special tournaments that are designed to reward the top 50 in the FedEx Cup standings, among others, from the previous season. The Memorial was one of three invitational tournaments brought into the mix, along with the Genesis Invitational and the Arnold Palmer Invitational. These three events feature a 36-hole cut to the low 50 and ties and players within 10 shots of the lead. The rest have no cut.
McIlroy, 36, won the second signature event of the year, the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, but he skipped The Sentry and the RBC Heritage, which came the week after he won the Masters and completed the career Grand Slam. He also won the Players in March. McIlroy did show up for the Truist Championship as the defending champion the week before the PGA Championship. World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, showing deference to a pair of Texas events in May, did not play in the Truist at Philadelphia Cricket Club.
“Listen,” Monahan said, “I think Rory … look at the season that Rory’s had. He’s had a life-altering season,” Monahan said. “And he’s got to … you win the Players Championship, you win the Masters Tournament, you win the Grand Slam, you win the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.”
It’s been a big year for McIlroy. Too big for some of the tour’s big events.
