{"id":436191,"date":"2025-08-04T02:30:41","date_gmt":"2025-08-04T02:30:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/?p=436191"},"modified":"2025-08-04T02:30:41","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T02:30:41","slug":"rory-mcilroy-not-attending-st-jude-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/rory-mcilroy-not-attending-st-jude-championship\/","title":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy Not Attending St Jude Championship"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the Wyndham Championships wrapping up<\/a>, the PGA Tour regular season is nearly done.\u00a0 With that, it means it is time to move on to the FedEx Cup this weekend.\u00a0 The FedEx Cup playoffs<\/a> will start with the St. Jude Championship in Memphis, Tennessee.\u00a0 The top 70 list is filling out nicely, with the remainder to be determined.\u00a0 However, one notable player is missing from the St Jude Championship, and that is Rory McIlroy.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Significance Of St Jude Championship<\/span><\/h2>\n

The St Jude Championship differs from the tournaments of the regular season in many ways.\u00a0 Most notable is the field size.\u00a0 This is an event reserved for the top 70 players only, with no alternates.\u00a0 Whatever happens to the players happens, and no one steps into their place.\u00a0 This is also for PGA Tour members only.\u00a0 No surprise breakout player can sneak their way into these events.\u00a0 The next event in the FedEx playoffs is the BMW Championship, which only allows the top fifty.\u00a0 McIlroy skipping out on the first event is a bit of a head-scratcher.<\/span><\/p>\n

McIlroy Skipping St Jude<\/span><\/h2>\n

Skipping the first event of the playoffs seems like a strange decision.\u00a0 However, this is a calculated decision that was telegraphed last November in an interview with the Telegraph<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll probably not play the first play-off event in Memphis,\u201d McIlroy told the Telegraph in November. \u201cI 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.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Being negatively affected like that is enough to dissuade anyone. \u00a0 However, the playoffs are very important events in order to get close to the FedEx Cup.\u00a0 Although his reasoning will garner him some criticism, he can get away with it this year.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rory McIlroy\u2019s Standing In The FedEx Cup<\/span><\/h2>\n

Not attending the St Jude Championship won\u2019t hurt Rory McIlroy\u2019s FedEx standing much.\u00a0 At the time of writing, McIlroy stands in a strong second place in the FedEx Cup standings.\u00a0 First is Scottie Scheffler, who remains unshaken in his position.\u00a0 McIlroy\u2019s position is in a strong enough position that he can skip at least the first two events in the playoffs without much worry.\u00a0 It\u2019s a strange position to be in, to be able to skip an event and still be in strong standings.\u00a0 That is just the natural outcome of the season McIlroy has had.\u00a0 He did manage to win the Masters Tournament<\/a> this year as well, which just improved his standing.<\/span><\/p>\n

McIlroy And The FedEx Cup<\/span><\/h2>\n

Despite not attending the first event, Rory McIlroy still has more than a strong chance at the FedEx Cup.\u00a0 This isn\u2019t even the first event he has skipped this year.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t attend the Cognizant Classic, the Valero Texas Open, the RBC Heritage, or the Memorial Championship.\u00a0 Yet despite that, he is still in such a strong standing.\u00a0 His skill speaks for itself, although one can argue that he would be in an even better position if he had attended those events.\u00a0 He is still in the race, and only time will tell how he will fare at the end of the playoffs.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit:\u00a0 \u00a9 Mike Frey-Imagn Images<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the Wyndham Championships wrapping up, the PGA Tour regular season is nearly done.\u00a0 With that, it means it is time to move on to the FedEx Cup this weekend.\u00a0 The FedEx Cup playoffs will start with the St. Jude Championship in Memphis, Tennessee.\u00a0 The top 70 list is filling out nicely, with the remainder […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5429,"featured_media":436192,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15,246,19],"tags":[34,8170],"class_list":["post-436191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-golf","category-golf-news","category-pga","tag-rory-mcilroy","tag-st-jude-championship"],"modified_by":"Taylor Craig","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5429"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436191"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436191\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":436195,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436191\/revisions\/436195"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}