Criticizing Rory McIlroy’s surprising Memorial skip misses big picture

Jack Nicklaus found out that Rory McIlroy wasn’t going to play in this year’s Memorial Tournament around the same time that everyone else got word that the Masters champion wouldn’t be making the trip to Dublin, Ohio. 

There was no back-channel conversation between McIlroy and Nicklaus about the World No. 2’s decision to sit out for the first time since 2017.

This meant the decision came as a bit of a shocker to Nicklaus, given the status of the event, McIlroy’s history at Muirfield Village and the Signature Event sticker that comes with it now. 

But while caught off guard by McIlroy’s absence, Nicklaus didn’t feel the need to criticize McIlroy on Tuesday during his pre-tournament press conference. 

“It surprised me,” Nicklaus said. “But guys have got schedules and got things they do. I haven’t talked to him for him to tell me why or why not. It’s just his call. I made a lot of calls that I had to make when I played to play or not play, and sometimes it wasn’t as popular as people thought it was. But sometimes you have to make those calls.

“I don’t hold anything against Rory for that. He did what he likes to play. I know he likes to play so many in a row. He likes to play the week before a U.S. Open. And so that’s what he’s doing. I really don’t have a comment on it. It’s very difficult. I’m a big Rory fan, I always have been. I’m sure that I will remain that way.” 

It would be easy to snipe McIlroy, who was one of the architects of the Signature Event model, for skipping his third one of the season. While there’s no penalty now for missing the Signature Events like there was in 2023, McIlroy now will have missed the season-opening Sentry, the RBC Heritage and the Memorial. The idea was to get the best of the best playing against each other as much as possible, and McIlroy’s absence stings the elevated events. 

McIlroy said last year at the Tour Championship that he planned to play fewer PGA Tour events. The 36-year-old told The Telegraph that the plan was to likely drop the RBC Heritage, the Cognizant Classic, the Valero Texas Open and a FedEx Cup Playoff event (likely the FedEx St. Jude Championship). McIlroy nixed the Cognizant and the Valero, but he added the Houston Open before his historic Masters win. He is expected to add the Travelers Championship, a Signature Event he skipped last year, to his schedule for the week after the U.S. Open at Oakmont. 

The bigger-picture view of McIlroy’s schedule tweaks reveals a star whose decisions, by and large, have benefited the PGA Tour while adhering to his pared-down focus.

He did skip the Sentry and RBC Heritage. But he also played in the Houston Open and the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, giving each event a boost of star power they haven’t always had. The same will be the case when McIlroy tees it up in next week’s RBC Canadian Open, which has become a staple of his schedule. Same goes for Scottie Scheffler, who skipped the Truist Championship (a Signature Event) but played the CJ Cup Byron Nelson and Charles Schwab Challenge, giving those non-Signature Events a boost in stature. 

The Tour undoubtedly would love for McIlroy to play the Memorial, but it’s a tournament that will have plenty of juice — with its ties to Nicklaus and a star-studded field — without him. You can’t say the same for Houston, Zurich or the Canadian Open, all of which will significantly benefit by having the career Grand Slam winner as the headliner.

Then, there’s the global view of McIlroy’s schedule. 

He still plays on the DP World Tour as much as possible. He played the Hero Dubai Desert Classic in January, which is why he skipped the Sentry. He’s expected to play the Irish Open, the BMW PGA Championship, the Dunhill Links and the DP World Tour Championship. He’ll also likely play in the Scottish Open, a co-sanctioned event with the PGA Tour.

As my colleague Sean Zak noted last week, McIlroy is also walking the walk with his desire for pro golf to be a more global game. He made a two-year commitment to play in the Australian Open in December and recently committed to play in the DP World Tour’s India Championship. 

McIlroy is doing his part to bring pro golf to places outside of the United States and has bettered tournaments that typically are lacking star power.

Perhaps the Signature Event model needs to be revisited. Perhaps there should be fewer of them. Maybe they should end before major-championship season (sorry, Jack). 

Either way, the Memorial will be just fine standing on its own without McIlroy this week, and the Canadian Open will be much better off for his presence. These big-picture tradeoffs are likely ones the PGA Tour is more than happy to make.