{"id":436238,"date":"2025-08-08T02:34:59","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T02:34:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/?p=436238"},"modified":"2025-08-08T02:34:59","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T02:34:59","slug":"rory-mcilroys-absence-leads-to-call-for-rule-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/rory-mcilroys-absence-leads-to-call-for-rule-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy’s Absence Leads To Call For Rule Change"},"content":{"rendered":"

The field is set, and the tournament has begun.\u00a0 The St Jude Championship is underway in Memphis, Tennessee, to see who goes next for the BMW Championship.\u00a0 It is all part of the FedEx Cup<\/a>; each event will have fewer and fewer players on the field.\u00a0 The roster is a who’s who for the PGA Tour.\u00a0 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<\/a>.\u00a0 Among all the stars on the field, there is one missing, and he is seeing criticism for it.\u00a0 Rory McIlroy\u2019s absence is causing an uproar, and a call for a rule change to prevent his actions in the future.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why Isn\u2019t Rory McIlroy There?<\/span><\/h2>\n

The reason why McIlroy isn\u2019t at the St Jude Championship<\/a> is due to his experience at the tournament last year.\u00a0 In an interview with the Telegraph, he explained:<\/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

It was not a great experience for McIlroy last year, yet he wasn\u2019t hurt by it much at all.\u00a0 Only slipping slightly in the leaderboards.\u00a0 This year he made a calculated decision to not go, and it looks like the numbers are on his side.\u00a0 Going into the Championship, McIlroy was in second in the FedEx Cup standings.\u00a0 He is in such an advantageous position that he could even skip the BMW Championship and still be in the race.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Call For Action<\/span><\/h2>\n

This incentive for the top players to skip FedEx Cup events is something that fans and players don\u2019t want.\u00a0 Johnson Wagner spoke on 5 clubs about<\/a> this and has an idea on how to prevent it.\u00a0 He starts by stating how integral the FedEx Cup has been for the PGA Tour for nearly twenty years now.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Now, what is Wagner’s solution to keep players from skipping the playoffs?\u00a0 It is very simple, making them mandatory in order to stay in the race.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf you don\u2019t play, there are no bye weeks on the PGA Tour playoffs. If you don\u2019t play, you\u2019re out. I think that\u2019s the only way to fix it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A simple solution that would keep anyone from doing what McIlroy did.\u00a0 Keeping it mandatory in order to stay in makes sense, while also keeping exceptions for emergencies and injuries.<\/span><\/p>\n

Should McIlroy Be Punished?<\/span><\/h2>\n

The decision not to attend the first event of the playoffs makes sense mathematically for McIlroy.\u00a0 Again, McIlroy is in very good standing for the FedEx Cup.\u00a0 However, it is a decision that garnered McIlroy criticism, like with Wagner.\u00a0 When all has come to pass, the event is only short one player out of seventy.\u00a0 McIlroy was the sole outlier here, and although making the playoffs mandatory would close a loophole, it doesn\u2019t seem to need to be addressed as of yet.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

The field is set, and the tournament has begun.\u00a0 The St Jude Championship is underway in Memphis, Tennessee, to see who goes next for the BMW Championship.\u00a0 It is all part of the FedEx Cup; each event will have fewer and fewer players on the field.\u00a0 The roster is a who’s who for the PGA […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5429,"featured_media":436239,"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-436238","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\/436238","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=436238"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436238\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":436240,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436238\/revisions\/436240"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}