KAPALUA, HI – Rory McIlroy is starting the year with a bogey.
Which is tough to do when the World No. 1 isn’t even playing. How does the person who led the movement for the best golfers on the PGA Tour to play against each other in a series of elevated events skip the inaugural one? McIlroy opted out of this week’s Sentry Tournament of Champions at Kapalua Resort’s Plantation Course and issued no explanation. (An email to his manager went unanswered.)
The field still is stout with 17 of the top 20 in the world, but the idea of the best players committing to play more often against each other is very much McIlroy’s baby, and so you’d think the World No. 1 would understand that his participation is mandatory. Every other player eligible for the 39-man field did his part and showed up and will be rewarded handsomely with a chance to claim the $2.7 million winner’s check, nearly double last year’s first prize. Somewhere in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan is asking himself, “Is this for real?”
The T of C already is missing its defending champion as Cameron Smith is persona non grata having departed for richer pastures with LIV Golf. But McIlroy, who is a member of the PGA Tour’s Policy Board and along with Tiger Woods rallied the top players to commit to playing in 13 elevated events with jacked-up purses, should be in the winner’s event (which now includes some non-winners who finished in the top 30 of the FedEx Cup standings). Title sponsor Sentry upped the ante, extending its deals through 2035 and raising the purse from $8.2 million to $15 million beginning this year. It can’t be happy that it doesn’t have a three-time winner and the reigning FedEx Cup champion in the field.
It should be pointed out that players are allowed to skip one of the elevated events and still be eligible for the full amount of their Player Impact Program bonus money. In one breath, you could argue that McIlroy’s decision to bypass the TOC proves that the Tour’s elite are still independent contractors unlike LIV players who are contractually bound to play all 14 of its events.
But when you’re the vocal leader who made it his mission to combat Greg Norman and the rise of LIV Golf, you really need to be at the first one to support this new effort. Given McIlroy’s outspoken role, is it too much to expect him to have played in all of the elevated events in 2023? What a punch in the gut to this new tiered system before it even gets off the ground. The optics aren’t good, especially when McIlroy has enjoyed plenty of down time off of late – his last appearance was at the DP World Tour Championship, which ended Nov. 20. Sure, it’s a Ryder Cup year and he’ll have to balance playing a few additional DP World Tour events such as a planned appearance in Dubai at the end of the month, but there’s no good excuse. Will Zalatoris, who was in the room in Delaware and is a member of the Tour’s Player Advisory Council, said only a health-related issue would keep him out of an elevated event.
“Why would I turn down any of the nine events where we’re playing for $20 million against the best players in the world?” he said. “You know, when I’m at home I would be playing golf anyway, so I might as well play it against some of the best players in the world.”
McIlroy’s decision wasn’t totally unexpected. Speaking at the CJ Cup in October, McIlroy was candid that he was on the fence about playing at Kapalua, where he’s played just once in his career, finishing fourth in 2019. Anytime the best players in the world have skipped this no-cut, limited field event – whether Tiger or Phil, who both made a habit of doing so – it diminishes the event in the eyes of the public. The takeaway is that these guys must be overpaid if they can just skip a minimum $200,000 payday and a week of lavish living in Maui.
McIlroy is the last pro you’d think of to be lacking self-awareness but this time he dropped the ball. It likely won’t make a difference in his Masters prep, but at a time when the Tour is trying to stave off an upstart competitor with deep pockets, you want your de facto leader to be all in and McIlroy’s absence this week calls into question whether the Tour’s elevated events will stand tall or become a recycled and rebranded version of the World Golf Championships.