Rory McIlroy’s call to pull out of the iconic Jack Nicklaus Memorial Tournament has left fans frustrated with the Masters champion. The event changed their start date due to his request last season, but McIlroy has still decided to skip the tournament hosted by golf legend Nicklaus.
McIlroy, who has never won the Memorial in seven attempts, will be absent for the first time since its creation. Before the event’s renewal in 2025, McIlroy called for it to change position on the PGA Tour schedule and felt that it deserved the tag of being a stand-alone event. Last year, the Memorial took place a week before the US Open.
“This is more than a tune-up for the US Open,” McIlroy said last year. “This is a huge tournament, with the host being arguably the greatest player ever to play the game, so it needs to stand on its own a little bit.”
After he finished T15, Nicklaus and the tour came to an agreement to move the £15million event forward in the calendar, pushing it to two weeks before the US Open at Oakmont.
But McIlroy has confirmed that he will not be attending. He will miss three of the first seven signature events on tour and will instead travel to the Canadian Open in Toronto, a week before the third major of the year.
Even though McIlroy had previously stated that he would be reducing his schedule moving forward, supporters voiced their anger at his absence.
On X (formerly known as Twitter) @CitizenF__ wrote: “Rory missing his third signature event this year. Very disrespectful to Mr Nicklaus for him to not be playing this.”
The idea of McIlroy not showing respect to Nicklaus, an 18-time major winner, was repeated among the reaction to the news. @TitanCat007 wrote: “Disrespecting the greatest player ever…host Jack Nicklaus.”
Another supporter insisted that McIlroy had given “a real slap in the face” to American golf, with @Luke87743946 writing: “The USA share of the world golf market is 55 per cent. Canada is around 14 per cent. So, I used to like Rory, but this is a real slap in the face to the largest consumers of golf equipment and PGA venues etc. Bad move.”
Several more, including @DavidWilso68155, claimed that “Jack [Nicklaus] won’t be happy”, though the legend has not discussed the matter publicly.
Many also questioned whether the PGA Tour would punish Mcilroy for missing three signature events. He was fined £2.22m in 2023 for skipping them twice, but the tour has since dropped that rule.
In previous years, players would have to return 25 per cent of their Player Impact Program bonus if they were absent for more than one Signature Event, if they were not injured.
