Criticizing Rory McIlroy is surprising

Jack Nicklaus found that Rory McIlroy would not be attending everyone else in this year’s memorial competition, news that the Masters champion would not travel to Dublin, Ohio.

There is no decision between McIlroy and Nicklaus about the first time the World No. 2 has sat down since 2017.

This means the decision is a little shocked for Nicklaus, given the event’s status, McIlroy’s history at Moorefield Village and the iconic event stickers that come with it now.

But while Nicklaus was caught off guard by McIlroy’s absence, Nicklaus didn’t need to criticize McIlroy on Tuesday in a pre-match press conference.

“It surprised me,” Nicklaus said. “But men have a schedule and do what they do. I didn’t talk to him to tell me why or why not. It’s just his phone. When I play games or don’t play games, I make a lot of calls and sometimes it’s not as popular as people. Sometimes you have to make those calls.

“I didn’t have any objection to Rory. He did what he loved to play. I know he liked playing a lot in a row. He liked playing a week before the U.S. Open. So that’s what he was doing. I really didn’t have a comment. It was really hard. I’m a big Rory fan and I’ve been that way. I’m sure. I’ll do that.”

For one of the architects who signed the event model and sniping McIlroy was easy to skip the third of the season. While there is no penalty for missing the signature event as in 2023, McIlroy will now miss the opening Sentinel, the legacy and memorial of Royal Bank of Canada. The idea is to get as many of the best matches as possible, and McIlroy’s absence stings the incident.

McIlroy said at the Tour Championship last year that he planned to compete in fewer games on the PGA Tour. The 36-year-old told telegraph The plan may abandon the RBC legacy, the Cognitive Classic, the Valais Rotex Open and the FedEx Cup playoffs (probably the FedEx St. Jude Championship). McIlroy Knox and Valero, but he added the Houston Open in the historic Masters. He is expected to add the Travelers Championship to the signature event he skipped last year within a week after the U.S. Open Open.

A larger chart of McIlroy’s scheduling adjustments reveals a star whose decision (in general) benefited the PGA Tour while sticking to his cut-down focus.

He did skip the Sentinel and RBC legacy. But he also competed in the Houston Open and the Zurich Classic in New Orleans, which allowed each game to promote the star power they didn’t always have. This is also true when McIlroy improves it at the Canadian Canadian Open next week. Scottie Scheffler, who skipped the Truist title (an iconic match) but played the CJ Cup Byron Nelson and Charles Schwab Challenge, bringing the status of these non-signature events to the fore.

There is no doubt that this tour would like McIlroy to play the memorial, but it’s a game and there will be a lot of juice – staying in touch with Nicklaus and the star-studded field. For Houston, Zurich or Canadian Open, you can’t say the same thing, all of which will benefit greatly by making a professional Grand Slam title headline.

Then, there is a global perspective on McIlroy’s schedule.

He still plays as much as possible in the DP World Tour. He played the Hero Dubai Desert Classic in January, which is why he skipped the Sentinel. He is expected to compete in the Irish Open, BMW PGA champion, Dunhill Links and DP World Tour champion. He may also be in the Scottish Open, an event jointly approved with the PGA Tour.

As my colleague Sean Zak pointed out last week, McIlroy also walked with his desire to become a more global game. He promised to play in the Australian Open in December and recently made a promise to compete in the Indian champions of the DP World Tour.

McIlroy is doing his part to bring Pro Golf outside the United States and improves games that usually lack the power of stars.

Maybe a reexamination of the signature event model is needed. Maybe it should be less. Maybe they should end before the main championship season (sorry, Jack).

Either way, the Memorial could stand up on its own without McIlroy this week, and the Canadian Open would be better in front of him. These large tradeoffs are likely to be something the PGA Tour is happy to play.