Rory McIlroy has been left eating his words, after the Northern Irishman controversially pulled out of this week's RBC Heritage at Harbour Town Golf Links.
McIlroy endured a nightmare outing at last week's Masters after the Northern Irishman once again missed out on securing the career Grand Slam by missing the 36-hole cut at Augusta. Just days after his Masters disappointment, it was confirmed McIlroy would not tee it up in South Carolina one week later.
The withdrawal is set to be a costly one for the four-time major champion, having pulled out of his second elevated event of the campaign, breaking one of the Tour's golden rules.
Following the PGA Tour's revamp for 2023, commissioner Jay Monahan confirmed that the circuit's elite players were only allowed to opt out of one of the 17 elevated tournaments on the seasonal calendar. The sanction for breaking the rule is a financial one, with offenders losing a chunk of their Player Impact Programme (PIP) bonus.
And it seems this is the fate of McIlroy, with the Northern Irishman set to lose a whopping $3 million of his end-of-year payout after pulling out of two of the designated events. The fact that McIlroy is the first offender is a shock to many, after the four-time major winner played such a huge role in rolling out the Tour's new rules.
The 32-year-old himself defended the new elevated rulings earlier this season, but may well now be regretting these words. Speaking at the Genesis Invitational, he said: "The best players should be playing in [the 'elevated events'] because ultimately the PGA Tour needs to be built around the best players."
There is no doubt McIlroy is part of that 'best player' bracket, making his withdrawal all the more puzzling. The reasoning surrounding his second opt-out of the season remains unknown, but is fair to say there was not much love lost from his fellow players amid the pending fine.
What do you make of McIlroy's decision to skip the RBC Heritage? Let us know in the c omments section below.
Speaking at this week's RBC Heritage, Olympic champion Xander Schauffele commented: "Rules are the rules. So, I mean, for the most part, a lot of what he wanted is what's happening. "And the irony is that he's not here.”
Similar thoughts were echoed by Joel Dahmen, who added: "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."
