Why you don’t see Rory Mcilroy at the FedEx Cup Playoffs Opener

Rory Mcilroy remains faithful to his word last year and does not participate in the Fedex Cup Playoffs opener next week.

The commitment list (based on last week’s FedEx Cup classification) for the FedEx St. Jude Classic of next week, the first of three play -off events that end the regular season of the PGA Tour, is not on, and the name of McIlroy is not on it.

McIlroy’s decision to skip the first event of the play -offs does not really mean much for his chances on the FedEx Cup title, because he is guaranteed to make the Tour Championship on East Lake, regardless of his results in Memphis or the BMW championship of the following week. McIlroy is second in the rankings after three victories, including the Masters, earlier this season and he is almost 850 points for Sepp Straka in third place.

Of the top 70 players in the rankings that are eligible for the play -offs, McIlroy, who has not played during a T7 during last month’s open championship, is the only player who chooses to skip the opener.

The now Grand Slam winner opened last year with a 68 at TPC Southwind to support the rest of the week and complete T68 (second for the last), but only saw his seasonal ranking in the FedEx Cup drop from the third to the fifth. At the end of last year he told the UK Telegraph That he would probably not play this season in the play -off opener, because he was planning to scale back his schedule.

“I will probably not play the first play-off event in Memphis,” McIlroy told the Telegraph in November. “I mean, I was basically tied to death this year [tied for 68 in a 70-man field]And only stepped one place in the play-off classification. “

In that interview, McIlroy also called the Cognizant Classic, Valero Texas Open and RBC heritage as events that he played in 2024 that he would probably not do in 2025 and all three events did not make his schedule this season. Assuming McIlroy plays both the BMW and the Tour Championships, he will make 16 starts on tour this season, three less than a year ago after he revealed the Texas Children’s Houston for the first time since 2014 for his schedule.

McIlroy did not do so well in his career at TPC Southwind.

His best finish arrived in 2023 when he shot a final round 65 to earn a solo-deducted place, but he missed the cut the year before in the first event of the event as a playoff event. He never won in Memphis in eight attempts.

There is also a precedent for McIlroy that skips the first event of the FedEx Cup -Play -offs, although this is the first time he has done it since the play -offs have been truncated from four events to three. He opted for the Northern Trust in 2018 and the Barclays in 2015.

This is the first year of the new FedEx Cup bonus structure of the PGA Tour, which places much more emphasis on the regular season, in contrast to allocating bonuses based on the results of the Tour Championship. Based on his second place in the rankings of the FedEx Cup, McIlroy has already been set to earn $ 4 million based on the completion of the regular season in the second and an extra $ 6 million from the Comcast Business Top 10.