Rory McIlroy is the only absence from this week’s 70-man FedEx St. Jude Championship, the PGA Tour’s playoff opener at TPC Southwind in Memphis.
McIlroy, at second in points behind Scottie Scheffler, is already guaranteed to qualify for both the BMW Championship and Tour Championship. And though the top 30 players in points after the BMW are paid out of the FedExCup bonus pool, McIlroy has a nearly 900,000-point cushion on No. 3 Sepp Straka while he’s over 1.3 million points shy of Scheffler. In other words, McIlroy skipping one playoff event shouldn’t affect his standing too much, if at all. Plus, he already collected $10 million in bonuses on Sunday.
Points also are meaningless once players arrive at East Lake, which has been reverted to traditional, 30-man stroke play.
But is this what the Tour wants – its stars opting not to appear in playoff events?
Peter Malnati, a player director on the Tour’s policy board, told Golfweek that he’s “very concerned” about McIlroy’s opt-out of Memphis.
Malnati also hinted at a potential rule change, which would require qualified players to compete in playoff events. McIlroy isn’t the only player to skip such an event over the year; Tiger Woods did just that for the inaugural playoff event in 2007.
“I think there is stuff in the works, and I’ll leave it at that,” Malnati told Golfweek.
Added Jordan Spieth, a former player director, in the same report: “You might have 1-2 guys do that for an event, but I don’t think it will become a thing because they are still huge events against the best players in the world. I think they’re trying to figure out how to make sure you don’t skip both of them and ideally neither of them.”
The winners of the FedEx St. Jude and BMW receive 2,000 points apiece, compared to 750 for majors, 700 for signature events, 500 for regular full-field events and 300 for additional events. If No. 70 Matti Schmid were to win Sunday in Memphis, he could move all the way to third in points.
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