Report: Rory McIlroy’s Decision to Skip RBC Heritage Costs Him Millions

When the PGA Tour announced its plan for Designated Events in 2023, one of the goals was to ensure top fields for more events than just the four majors and The Players Championship.

The plan came under criticism from some players—namely Masters winner Jon Rahm and Viktor Hovland, the latter of which said it wouldn’t be ideal to be forced to play 23-25 events per year.

The rules stated that one of the 12 designated events could be skipped.

Rory McIlroy, who didn’t play in the first Designated Event (Sentry Tournament of Champions), withdrew from this week’s RBC Heritage after missing the cut at the Masters.

As a result of missing a second Designated Event, Bob Harig of Sports Illustrated reports that McIlroy will forfeit 25% of his bonus from the PGA Tour’s Player Impact Program (PIP), which comes out to $3 million.

🚨Joel Dahmen on Rory McIlroy’s absence: “I feel like Rory was leading the charge on the changes that have been made and he helped make the rules. He knew what the rules were. So, he knew what was coming. He also has so much money, he doesn’t care about $3 million.” (via…

— NUCLR GOLF (@NUCLRGOLF) April 14, 2023

Rahm said the thought crossed his mind of taking the week off after the excitement of Sunday’s win at Augusta, but he decided to honor his commitment to play.

Jon Rahm just won $3.2 million at The Masters, yet he has still decided to play this week’s RBC Heritage.

When he was asked why, he said:

“It did cross my mind, but I made a commitment earlier in the year, and I want to honor that commitment.”

“I put myself in the shoes of not… pic.twitter.com/nQLZENCkcG

— Joe Pompliano (@JoePompliano) April 12, 2023

There has been criticism of the PGA Tour bunching up the designated events. There was a period in February and March where four were played in a five-week span. Two weeks after The Players Championship, there was another stretch of three big events in four weeks—the WGC-Match Play, the Masters, and now the RBC Heritage.

In 2024, there will be no requirement for players to compete in a certain number of Designated Events. The number of them will also drop from 12 to eight and will be spread out more throughout the year.

Cover Image Via The Mirror