Denis Poroy-Imagn Images
Rory McIlroy ruffled some feathers when he declined to compete in the tournament that ushered in the start of the FedEx Cup Playoffs. However, he doesn’t seem to have any regrets based on what he had to say after showing up to the second leg of the PGA Tour’s postseason.
There’s plenty of money up for grabs over the course of the PGA Tour season, and the players who compete in those tournaments are also hoping to rack up enough points to be one of the golfers who end up making the cut when the FedEx Cup Playoffs kick off.
70 players officially punched their ticket to the FedEx St. Jude Championship at TPC Southwind last weekend, but only 69 of them ended up making the trip to Memphis due to the notable name who ended up being the lone holdout: Rory McIlroy, who had previously hinted he’d opted to skip the event before following through on that promise.
That decision understandably did not please the powers that be at the PGA Tour, with Policy Board director Peter Malnati strongly hinting the organization would institute a new rule to avoid another situation where it has to deal with the fallout of one of its most marketable names blowing off a playoff event with no major repercussions.
However, the Northern Irishman seems very unbothered by the blowback based on what he had to say while justifying his decision to go that route.
Rory McIlroy addressed his decision to skip the St. Jude Championship while gearing up for his first FedEx Cup Playoffs event of the year
McIlroy didn’t really have any incentive to head to Memphis due to how the FedEx Cup Playoff is currently structured.
70 players made the cut for the first event before the field for the BMW Championship was narrowed down to 50, and 30 golfers will ultimately get invited to play for the FedEx Cup at the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta.
However, the rankings are based on the number of points you’ve racked up over the course of the entire season, and as of this year, the PGA Tour has abandoned the “starting strokes” model that rewarded the best golfers for their consistent play.
McIlroy had 3,444 points when the Wyndham Championship wrapped up and was sitting behind Scottie Scheffler (who racked up 4,806) in second place heading into the St. Jude Championship. He also led Daniel Berger, the golfer sitting in 30th place, by close to 2,300 points, and when you consider golfers who finish outside of the top few spots can only add a few hundred to their total, Rory could have realistically sat out the first two legs and still been eligible for the Tour Championship.
However, he did ultimately decide to head to Caves Valley Golf Club in Maryland for the BMW Championship this week, and on Wednesday, he floated a potential solution to the problem he highlighted while pointing to his upcoming schedule to justify his prioritization, saying (via NBC Sports):
“Obviously I didn’t play last week, and is that something they need to look at?
I’ve heard this idea kicked around, where everything resets after Wyndham and then the top 70 just play for the top 50 spots to get into the next week, and then everything resets again here, and then the top 30 from this week then make it to the Tour Championship.
If you want to try to make it straight playoffs and elimination, I think that would be a good way to go…
A lot of the guys aren’t 18 years into their professional careers, either. I feel like I’m in a little bit of a different position than some of the guys. That extra week off will do me good with the events coming up;s ome big events that are important to me: the Irish Open, Wentworth, obviously the Ryder Cup.
I want to try to win my seventh Race to Dubai over in Europe as well. There’s some things that are still important to me that I want to go play in. That was a big part of the reason why I wanted to take that extra week off last week.”
I personally think the PGA Tour would be wise to adopt the model Rory suggested to add some extra intrigue to its postseason, and while he may not have intended to force the organization’s hand with what he’s acknowledged was a self-serving move, there’s a chance it could result in some beneficial changes.