Rory McIlroy is skipping out on the Hero World Challenge for the third consecutive season, but it doesn’t seem that it’s his relationship with Tiger Woods causing the skip
Rory McIlroy skipping Hero World Challenge for third consecutive season(Image: Getty Images)
Rory McIlroy is skipping out on Tiger Woods’ Hero World Challenge as he shifts his focus to the world’s most prestigious events instead of just filling his calendar to the brim.
McIlroy is skipping the PGA Tour event for the third consecutive year, instead playing at the Australian Open. Following his win at the Masters, he committed to play the event at Royal Melbourne GC, which occurs at the same time as the Hero World Challenge.
The 36-year-old career grand slam winner mentioned he still has goals to achieve throughout his career and that he’s locking in on the most important trophies as he makes his first appearance at the Australian Open since 2014.
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“Yeah, there absolutely is,” said McIlroy when asked if he had more goals to go after. “I’ve talked about trying to win at some of the most important venues in golf, this week is one of them.
“You think about the tournaments and the people that have won at Royal Melbourne and how highly regarded it is within the golf world. I was lucky enough to win at Pebble Beach [Pro-Am] this year for the first time, and obviously at Augusta. I’d love to win at St. Andrews one day. I’d love to win a U.S. Open at Pebble Beach.”
Instead of targeting PGA Tour and DP World Tour records, McIlroy has shifted his focus to being competitive in majors and Ryder Cups at golf’s toughest tests.
Rory McIlroy searching for another trophy at Australian Open
“There are a few venues in our game that maybe just mean a bit more than some of the others and that’s something that I would love to do one day,” said the golf legend. “I want to win more majors. I want to be part of more Ryder Cup teams.
“I’d say my records on either tour, whether it be the DP World Tour or the PGA Tour are probably meaning a little less to me as time goes on, and it’s really just focusing on the majors and being part of that Ryder Cup team. I’m trying to build on the legacy that I’ve been building for the last 15 years.”
With McIlroy choosing Melbourne over other big events happening this week, more attention is coming to the tournament than years past, something he’s happy to bring along.
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“If you look at the world of golf right now, there are three pretty big tournaments going on in the same week,” McIlroy said. “You’ve got Tiger’s event [Hero World Challenge] in the Bahamas, the Nedbank [Golf Challenge on the DP World Tour] in South Africa, and here. This tournament [Australian Open] has lost a little bit of what it had, say, 30 or 40 years ago.
“I think because there’s so much golf and there are so many tournaments, the eyeballs are divided and the interest in every one of those tournaments this week is probably not as high as it should be.
“This tournament in particular because of the history, the tradition, deserves to be a standalone tournament, a week on its own, and hopefully one day they could put together a schedule where the biggest and best tournaments in the world and the oldest and the ones with the most heritage can be elevated and stand on their own.”
