2025 will forever be remembered as a signature season for Rory McIlroy after he followed up two victories at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and Players Championship with a career grand slam victory at the Masters last month.
Amazingly, his worst result of the season came at the very next major when he finished T47 at the US PGA Championship last week but many expect him to be back to his usual self and be well prepared for the US Open at Oakmont next month.
His pre-US Open prep won’t involve a title bid at next week’s Memorial Tournament after he decided to skip Jack Nicklaus’ event at Muirfield Village for the first time since 2017.
McIlroy has praised the Memorial as an event that deserved to stand alone, not serve as a lead in to the U.S. Open.
“This is a huge tournament, with the host being arguably the greatest player ever to play the game, so it needs to stand on its own a little bit,” McIlroy said last year.
As this is a Signature Event on the PGA Tour, skipping one of the $20m events would have come with a hefty fine in previous years. But McIlroy, who will have missed three of them after next week, will get away scot free.
McIlroy was infamously fined around $3 million after eh skipped the Sentry and RBC Heritage in 2023.
Back then players weren’t allowed to skip more than one Signature Event or they would have to forfeit 25% of their Player Impact Program bonus (PIP).
The PIP scheme ended last year so for now, McIlroy doesn’t need to worry about being fined for missing more than one of the Signature Events.
The Northern Irishman once again opted out of the Sentry, as he prefers to start his season in the UAE on the DP World Tour while he understandably missed the RBC Heritage in Harbour Town just a week after winning his first Masters title at Augusta National.
This seems to be part of McIlroy’s plans to limit his playing schedule after a hectic calendar last season which was by design to help him perform better in the major championships.
McIlroy is still listed to play the RBC Canadian Open, another tournament he has won before, the week after the Memorial Tournament.
Then will come the US Open before he begins his lead up to the Open Championship at Royal Portrush in July.
McIlroy has voiced his preference for a world tour to unify golf’s fractured landscape and last week he was confirmed for the DP World India Championship later this year.
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