Rory McIlroy’s playoff skip is not a problem to be solved

The FedEx Cup playoffs will begin this week, and as you may have heard, PGA Tour’s biggest star Rory McIlroy chose not to spend a week at the St. Jude Federal Championships in Memphis in early August.

McIlroy made a decision in an interview last fall telegraph. He includes three Masters wins this season and is ranked second in the FedEx Cup rankings, so his position on the Tour Championship is almost reassuring. In short, McIlroy earned enough of his lifetime golfing, including earning less than $70 million in careers in the FedEx Cup playoffs, so he gained the right to not play this week. Tiger Woods did the same thing in 2007.

But as usual in McIlroy, his decision caused a sensation.

In an interview golf Peter Malnati’s Adam Schupak hints that the PGA Tour might propose a way to close the loopholes so that players like McIlroy can skip playoff events without affecting the playoffs. He didn’t elaborate, but the idea of “Rorry’s rule” was at least kicked.

It is worth noting that Malnati is also not in Memphis because he is not qualified, he speaks from the perspective of PGA travel agencies and is the player director of the PGA Tour Policy Committee. Marnati’s goal is to help the tour continue to consolidate the legitimacy of the FedEx Cup playoffs and please FedEx, sponsoring not only this week’s events, but also the entire playoff games and season-long games. If you want to make sponsors happy, it can be beneficial if the sport’s biggest active stars don’t ignore their game.

But the biggest problem with the PGA Tour is not McIlroy passing Memphis. It is the playoff system that is often tweaked and changed that still lacks any meaning beyond the dollar added to the bank account at the end of August. Can they adjust the format further so that the points are reset, and everyone starts the playoffs at zero, thus forcing participation? They can try, but if they do, they could lose someone like McIlroy who finished T68 in Memphis last year, and if he had a bad week, the remaining two playoffs. Not having all the best players in East Lake seems like a goal worth avoiding. You also come across a sticky area of players who are trying to force an independent contractor to attend certain events, and we see what happened during the first year of the signature event model (McIlroy skipped more events than he should have if you remember).

I think that a trip by having McIlroy pass through to Memphis sweating may “lose” this tour, which is much less than his tour this year and what he might bring in the future. He skipped the Memorial and RBC legacy, and like Memphis, all other top players showed up. But he challenged it in New Orleans in Houston, at Zurich Classics and Royal Canadian Innings Canada Open. The benefits he brings are in eyeballs, TV ratings, tickets purchased, etc. Overall, this is a very difficult gospel to quantify.

If you’re also looking at a bigger picture of golf outside of the PGA Tour, McIlroy’s remaining timeline includes the Irish Open, BMW PGA Champion, India Champion, DP World Tour Champion and Australian Open, and the Ryder Cup.

As my colleague Sean Zak wrote, McIlroy talked about being a “global” player and following those promises by establishing a global timeline. McIlroy skips Memphis but plays on the PGA Tour and markets around the world, which is usually not a proof star of his caliber, which is a good trade-off for the whole sport.

Finally, McIlroy’s decision does not require rules. This is not a loophole that needs to be over to prevent the entire playoff Charm itself from collapsing. In the end, it’s just becoming an elite player, with priorities outside of money narrowing.

McIlroy is one of the rare players – because of his status and career achievements, he has the ability to skip events with a $20 million wallet instead of mind doing so. Note how all the other top 70 players, including Scottie Scheffler, are doing. The stars are not all jump over. McIlroy hasn’t opened Pandora’s box, which needs to be closed. Over the past six months and 16 years, he has won the right to skip the game. This is no different from the best-bye week of the top seed in other sports.

Rory McIlroy follows different rules because of who he is and what he brings to the table. He is a “loophole” created by Rory McIlroy. For 99.9% of travel, this would be a difficult attempt and no rules are required to close it.