{"id":49711,"date":"2026-08-13T06:04:01","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T06:04:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/49711\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T06:04:01","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T06:04:01","slug":"rory-mcilroy-changes-mind-on-schedule-and-commits-to-three-fedex-cup-events-in-a-row-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/49711\/","title":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy changes mind on schedule and commits to three FedEx Cup events in a row \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rory McIlroy<\/a> intends to treat the three FedEx Cup playoff events \u2013 a stretch of back-to-back weeks that starts with the St Jude Championship and concludes with the Tour Championship \u2013 as a 12-round tournament, as the Co Down man and world number two hunts down a fourth career win in the megabucks end-of-season series.<\/p>\n

Temperatures are anticipated to reach almost 40 degrees in Memphis over this weekend for the first playoff event, the FedEx St Jude Championship at TPC Southwind, although McIlroy \u2013 who hasn\u2019t played since the Open at Royal Birkdale last month \u2013 admitted: \u201cIt\u2019s important for me to be here and show support and looking forward to teeing it up.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Birkdale, McIlroy had intimated he might not play in the playoff events leading up to the Tour Championship in Atlanta but explained there were a number of reasons for committing to the St Jude Championship, as well as next week\u2019s BMW Championship in St Louis.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think having four weeks off going into the last two events of the year was probably going to be a little too much for me in terms of wanting to be competitive. Obviously I want to play well, but it\u2019s also a good week to just see where my game is, do a lot of practice, or as much as I can in the heat,\u201d said McIlroy, who has his coach Michael Bannon with him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s important to be here. It\u2019s the [PGA] Tour\u2019s playoffs, and I think it\u2019s important for all the players to be here. I\u2019ve had some good conversations with [PGA Tour<\/a> chief executive] Brian Rolapp over the last couple weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

McIlroy \u2013 winner of the FedEx Cup on a record three occasions, in 2016, 2019 and 2022 \u2013 skipped the St Jude event last year but claimed to be impressed with the course improvements, which include changes to the fifth hole, traditionally the toughest on the course, and the Bermuda greens.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got on the tee box [on Tuesday] and I was like \u2018this hole was tough enough beforehand\u2019. In a way it makes the drive a touch easier because you don\u2019t have to flirt with the right side as much … you\u2019ve got to maybe just bleed it a little bit left to right, but it\u2019s all about getting the ball in the fairway. From the fairway on this golf course, you can attack it. It\u2019s a long, skinny green. You\u2019ve got to be accurate with your second shot as well. It\u2019s a hole that you make a par on and run to the sixth tee, that\u2019s for sure,\u201d said McIlroy.<\/p>\n

While McIlroy \u2013 currently 12th on the FedEx Cup standings, but with the jeopardy gone from the Tour Championship where players will all start from a level playing field since changes were made to the weighted system previously used \u2013 is guaranteed to make to the BMW at Bellerive and on to the Tour Championship, Shane Lowry<\/a> has a lot of work to do.<\/p>\n

Lowry, who is 62nd in the rankings, will need to break into the top-50 who progress on to the BMW, otherwise his work stateside will be done for the season.<\/p>\n

Leona Maguire<\/a> \u2013 confirmed for a fourth career Solheim Cup appearance for Europe in the Netherlands next month \u2013 returns to tournament action in the Portland Classic on the LPGA Tour, where Lauren Walsh and Stephanie Meadow are also in the field.<\/p>\n

Maguire is kicking off a three-week stretch that takes in the Portland event in Oregon, next week\u2019s Canadian Open and the following week\u2019s KPMG Irish Open at The K Club, with a week\u2019s break factored in before the Solheim Cup.<\/p>\n

\"JustinJustin Rose during the final round of the FedEx St Jude Championship last year. Photograph: Stacy Revere\/Getty Images Lowdown<\/p>\n

Purse: $20 million\/\u20ac17.3 million ($3.6 million\/\u20ac3.2 million to the winner).<\/p>\n

Where: Memphis, Tennessee.<\/p>\n

The course: TPC Southwind \u2013 designed by Ron Prichard \u2013 is a 7,288 yards, par 70 layout that also had inputs from former tour players Fuzzy Zoeller, Hubert Green and Loren Roberts as consultants. There are just short of 100 bunkers strategically located throughout the layout while 10 water hazards come into play. There are two outstanding par-3s on the homeward run: the 168-yard 11th, considered a shorter version of the 17th island hole at Sawgrass, and the 205-yard 14th, which traditionally ranks as one of the toughest holes on the PGA Tour. Some fairways were recontoured in 2023 as part of a project to facilitate the installation of a new drainage system.<\/p>\n

The playoffs: This is the first of three tournaments to close out the PGA Tour season. The FedEx Cup playoffs feature a progressive cut, with fields of 70 (69 here given the injured Daniel Berger\u2019s absence) for the FedEx St Jude Championship (TPC Southwind, Memphis, Tennessee), 50 for the BMW Championship (Bellerive Country Club in St Louis, Missouri) and 30 for the Tour Championship (East Lake Golf Club, Atlanta, Georgia), where the FedEx Cup champion will be determined.<\/p>\n

The field: Justin Rose is the defending champion in Memphis in a field that is headed by world number one Scottie Scheffler, who also leads the FedEx Cup rankings. With the absence of the injured Daniel Berger, there are 69 players competing. Rory McIlroy, who skipped the tournament last year, returns to a venue where he has had three top-5s in eight appearances.<\/p>\n

Irish in the field: McIlroy is paired with Scottie Scheffler for the opening two rounds, while Shane Lowry is in a pairing with Max Homa. McIlroy and Scheffler tee off at 2.30pm Irish time for the first round; McIlroy and Homa start at 4.30pm Irish time.<\/p>\n

Quote-Unquote: \u201cI\u2019m kind of waiting to sort of really catch fire again. I played some good, solid golf, but I\u2019m kind of waiting for a run. Hopefully the three weeks off that we\u2019ve just had is a bit of a refresher now, and I can really focus on this last, final push.\u201d \u2013 Justin Rose, who had a strong start to the season, including a win in the Farmers and third-place finish to McIlroy in the Masters, on looking to regain that early-year spark.<\/p>\n

Betting: Scheffler hasn\u2019t won since the American Express back in January but as ever heads the market with favouritism of 9-2 on the back of a run that has seen him in the top-four four times in his last five tournaments. McIlroy is rated a 14-1 prospect even though he hasn\u2019t played since the Open. Better value may be found with Hideki Matsuyama at 22-1, who is on a run of three successive top-10s. In terms of each-way looks, Open champion Ryan Fox \u2013 back for the first time since his Claret Jug success \u2013 is available at 80-1.<\/p>\n

On TV: Live on Sky Sports Golf from 5pm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy intends to treat the three FedEx Cup playoff events \u2013 a stretch of back-to-back weeks that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49712,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[144,399,1450],"class_list":["post-49711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rory-mcilroy","tag-pga-tour","tag-rory-mcilroy","tag-shane-lowry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}