{"id":318371,"date":"2025-08-04T23:37:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-04T23:37:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/318371\/"},"modified":"2025-08-04T23:37:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T23:37:14","slug":"explained-why-masters-champion-rory-mcilroy-is-missing-marquee-pga-tour-event-in-memphis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/318371\/","title":{"rendered":"Explained: Why Masters champion Rory McIlroy is missing marquee PGA Tour event in Memphis"},"content":{"rendered":"

The PGA Tour’s postseason gets underway at the <\/strong>FedEx St. Jude Championship<\/strong><\/a> with a notable absentee.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Tour released the commitment list last Friday for the for $20m tournament in Memphis and Rory McIlroy’s name was not included<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

McIlroy’s decision came as a shock to many but it should be noted the Masters<\/a> champion previously stated his desire to trim down his schedule by missing this tournament.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Northern Irishman is currently second in the overall standings to Scottie Scheffler<\/a> with 3,444 points to the American’s 4,806.<\/p>\n

He has already locked up a berth in the BMW Championship, reserved for the top 50 players in the FedEx Cup standings.<\/p>\n

And he could even make it to the Tour Championship at East Lake even if he skips the BMW.<\/p>\n

Why isn’t Rory McIlroy playing the FedEx St. Jude Championship?<\/p>\n

This is the fourth occasion this year McIlroy<\/a> has skipped one of the Tour’s marquee events.\u00a0<\/p>\n

McIlroy also decided to skip The Sentry in Hawaii in January, although it should be noted the 36-year-old prefers to start each campaign in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

He skipped the signature RBC Heritage in April but again, it should be stressed that tournament was staged a week after he completed the career grand slam at The Masters.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The golfer flew home to celebrate with his parents, wife Erica Stoll<\/a> and caddie Harry Diamond<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

McIlroy has also stated on several occasions that he is not a fan of Harbour Town Golf Links as the course doesn’t suit his eye.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He once opined after a 10-year absence from the RBC Heritage that it didn’t take him long to remember why he decided not to play there for so long.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, the biggest surprise came when he decided to forego the Memorial Tournament in Ohio, hosted by Jack Nicklaus<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Golden Bear admitted he was perplexed with McIlroy’s choice and was not even given a heads-up by the man himself he wouldn’t be playing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The simple truth is that, in the grand scheme of things, McIlroy doesn’t need to play this week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He is 859 points clear of Sepp Straka ahead of the FedEx St. Jude Championship and, with 2,000 points available to the winner and 980 to the runner-up, he cannot drop lower than fourth despite not taking part.<\/p>\n

How will Rory McIlroy’s decision be received?<\/p>\n

Probably not too well at PGA Tour HQ and FedEx.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Initially, it was mandatory for PGA Tour<\/a> members to appear in these exclusive tournaments.\u00a0<\/p>\n

McIlroy was extremely vocal on the topic, stressing that the cream of the PGA Tour’s crop should be playing together on a more regular basis in the fight against LIV Golf<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

FedEx will likely be a tad miffed at the Tour’s inability to deliver a bona fide superstar, especially as the courier giant has pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into the North American circuit for nearly two decades.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The alternative viewpoint is that it should be accepted at this stage in his career that McIlroy has earned the right to play when and where he wants.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He is not getting any younger and is in his 19th year as a touring professional.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When is Rory McIlroy playing next?<\/p>\n

There are no guarantees McIlroy will play the BMW Championship as the field has not been confirmed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If he does play, it will represent the first time he has teed it up since finishing in a share of seventh place at The Open<\/a>.<\/p>\n

McIlroy struggled to find his A game in the major championships since slipping on his green jacket at The Masters.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He was abysmal off the tee at the PGA Championship<\/a> and struggled to get anything going at the US Open<\/a> despite making his seventh cut in a row in a major that he has traditionally struggled in.\u00a0<\/p>\n

His homecoming at Royal Portrush<\/a> was electric, with the golfer’s third-round 66 a standout moment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If McIlroy skips the BMW Championship then we’ll see him at the Tour Championship.<\/p>\n

After that, McIlroy is scheduled to take part in the Irish Open and BMW PGA Championship before leading Europe at the Ryder Cup in September.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Subscribe to our Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The PGA Tour’s postseason gets underway at the FedEx St. Jude Championship with a notable absentee.\u00a0 The Tour…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":318372,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4106],"tags":[2826,4287,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-318371","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-rory-mcilroy","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114973130373230525","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318371\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/318372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}