Rory McIlroy is playing his 26th event of 2024 at this week’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, where he opened the tournament with a 67 in the second-to-last event of the DP World Tour schedule.
Don’t expect McIlroy to come close to that number of tournaments in 2025.
McIlroy, who hinted at a schedule reduction at the PGA Tour’s season-ending Tour Championship, got more detailed about his plans for next year after his opening round, telling the Telegraph that he might skip the first FedEx Cup playoff event next year.
The idea is to scale back to 18 or 19 events.
“There’s a few tournaments that I played this year that I don’t usually play and that I might not play next year,” McIlroy said. “Like, I played the Cognizant (Classic) in Palm Beach Gardens (formerly the Honda Classic), San Antonio (Texas Open) and Hilton Head (RBC Heritage).
“And I’ll probably not play the first playoff event in Memphis (the FedEx St. Jude). I mean, I finished basically dead last there this year (tied for 68th out of 70) and only moved down one spot in the playoff standings.”
McIlroy, who won the Dubai Desert Classic on the DP World Tour as well as the Zurich Classic (with Shane Lowry) and the Wells Fargo Championship, also competed in the Olympic Games in 2024.
He finished runner-up to Bryson DeChambeau at the U.S. Open and had a couple of close calls in Europe as well, finishing second at the Irish Open and the BMW PGA Championship.
Skipping the Cognizant is not a surprise but RBC Heritage is one of eight signature events with smaller fields and $20 million purses. If McIlroy also skips the season-opening Sentry—which he did this year—that would be two of the eight signature tournaments that he would miss.
In 2023, those eligible for the signature events were required to play them, with the stipulation that they could skip one. That year, McIlroy didn’t play in Hawaii and also skipped the RBC tournament the week after the Masters, leading to a fine that was taken from part of his Player Impact Program bonus.
There is no longer a stipulation that players compete in the signature events, although they are missing out on near-guaranteed money as well as increased FedEx Cup points.
“Well, at this point in my career …” McIlroy said. “Hey, I’m 35 and have been out here for 17, 18 years, so I’m just going to go to the places that I enjoy and where I play well. Look I’ve done the hard slog, I’ve done that sort of 25 to 30 events a year. And I’m not getting any younger.”
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Rory McIlroy Says He Will Play Less in 2025 on the PGA Tour.
