The field is set, and the tournament has begun. The St Jude Championship is underway in Memphis, Tennessee, to see who goes next for the BMW Championship. It is all part of the FedEx Cup; each event will have fewer and fewer players on the field. The roster is a who’s who for the PGA Tour. There are the expected players like Scottie Scheffler and Collin Morikawa, but there are also some surprise players like Aldrich Potgieter, one of the star rookies of 2025. Among all the stars on the field, there is one missing, and he is seeing criticism for it. Rory McIlroy’s absence is causing an uproar, and a call for a rule change to prevent his actions in the future.
Why Isn’t Rory McIlroy There?
The reason why McIlroy isn’t at the St Jude Championship is due to his experience at the tournament last year. In an interview with the Telegraph, he explained:
“I’ll probably not play the first play-off event in Memphis,” McIlroy told the Telegraph in November. “I mean, I finished basically dead last there this year [tied for 68 in a 70-man field], and only moved down one spot in the play-off standings.”
It was not a great experience for McIlroy last year, yet he wasn’t hurt by it much at all. Only slipping slightly in the leaderboards. This year he made a calculated decision to not go, and it looks like the numbers are on his side. Going into the Championship, McIlroy was in second in the FedEx Cup standings. He is in such an advantageous position that he could even skip the BMW Championship and still be in the race.
Call For Action
This incentive for the top players to skip FedEx Cup events is something that fans and players don’t want. Johnson Wagner spoke on 5 clubs about this and has an idea on how to prevent it. He starts by stating how integral the FedEx Cup has been for the PGA Tour for nearly twenty years now. McIlroy himself is a three-time champion of the FedEx Cup, and according to Wagner, the players owe them a ton for their retirement accounts. Now, what is Wagner’s solution to keep players from skipping the playoffs? It is very simple, making them mandatory in order to stay in the race.
“If you don’t play, there are no bye weeks on the PGA Tour playoffs. If you don’t play, you’re out. I think that’s the only way to fix it.”
A simple solution that would keep anyone from doing what McIlroy did. Keeping it mandatory in order to stay in makes sense, while also keeping exceptions for emergencies and injuries.
Should McIlroy Be Punished?
The decision not to attend the first event of the playoffs makes sense mathematically for McIlroy. Again, McIlroy is in very good standing for the FedEx Cup. However, it is a decision that garnered McIlroy criticism, like with Wagner. When all has come to pass, the event is only short one player out of seventy. McIlroy was the sole outlier here, and although making the playoffs mandatory would close a loophole, it doesn’t seem to need to be addressed as of yet.
Main Photo Credit: © Mike Frey-Imagn Images
