The FedExCup Playoffs are getting started in Memphis, but Rory McIlroy is taking the week off.
While thats not something thats going to impact his postseason status whatsoever McIlroy is entering the playoffs firmly in second in the standings, and will qualify for the Tour Championship regardless at least one PGA Tour player board member isnt happy that McIlroy isnt at the FedEx St. Jude Championship.
Very concerned, Peter Malnati told Golfweek on Tuesday, adding that there may be stuff in the works to try and prevent golfers from skipping postseason events in the future.
The PGA Tour adjusted its playoff format slightly this season to remove the starting strokes format at the Tour Championship. This year, the 30 golfers who make it to East Lake will all start at even par.
That, though, was the only change and left golfers the ability to skip events of their choosing. Since McIlroy entered the postseason with 3,444 points in the FedExCup race and only trails top-ranked Scottie Scheffler, he has absolutely no need to play in the first playoff event. He doesnt really need to play in the BMW Championship next week either, if he didnt want to.
Even if he drops a few spots in the standings, hed still enter the Tour Championship on even footing with the rest of the field. If anything, the format change to the Tour championship made the decision to skip the first tournament that much easier.
McIlroy has won three times on Tour this season, most recently at the Masters which made him just the sixth golfer in history to complete the career grand slam. Hes had eight top-10 finishes this season and missed only a single cut while earning more than $16 million in prize money alone. Hes going to play in several international, non-Tour events later this year, too.
He also told The Telegraph last fall that he’d not be competing, so the move shouldn’t come as a surprise.
Though Malnati wasnt too thrilled, Webb Simpson, who is also a player director on the Tour board, doesnt have an issue with McIlroy skipping this week. After all, Simpson did the same thing back in 2020.
Simpson and McIlroy are far from alone here. Tiger Woods, for example, skipped the first playoff event in 2007 and then won the second two tournaments to win the inaugural FedExCup. Jim Furyk also won the FedExCup in 2010 while missing a tournament.
As for implementing some sort of Rory rule and forcing golfers to play, Simpson doesnt think thats very possible either.
McIlroys absence this week certainly isnt the best look for the Tour as it kicks off the postseason, and its unclear if new Tour CEO Brian Rolapp will move to actually implement some sort of rule to fix that in the future, but the FedEx St. Jude Championship will go on as scheduled. It’ll just have a 69-man field instead of the full 70.
And in a few weeks, McIlroy will have just as good of a shot as any to claim what would be his record fourth FedExCup. His absence this week will simply be a things of the past.