OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Rory McIlroy moved nary a spot in the FedEx Cup standings after skipping last week’s FedEx Cup playoff event, but said even if he had dropped substantially, it would not have caused him to second-guess his decision to take the week off.
Returning this week at the BMW Championship at Caves Valley, McIlroy said Wednesday that his decision was based on his upcoming schedule, which calls for seven more events after next week’s Tour Championship in Atlanta.
The Masters champion remained second in the FedEx Cup standings behind Scottie Scheffler.
“There's obviously been a lot of discourse about should these playoffs be mandatory or not,” McIlroy said after playing in the pro-am at Caves Valley. “Obviously I didn't play last week, and is that something that they need to look at? It could be something where—and I've heard this idea kicked around, where everything resets after Wyndham and then the top 70 just play for the top 50 spots to get into the next week and then everything resets again here, and then the top 30 from this week then make it to the Tour Championship.
“If you want to try to make it straight playoffs and elimination, I think that would be a good way to go. You're trying to balance a lot of different things. You're trying to balance the competitive integrity of what the playoffs are, but you're also trying to keep the media rights partners happy, you're trying to keep the sponsors happy. They're the people that are paying the big bucks to expect the big names to be playing in their golf tournaments, and that's a delicate balance.”
McIlroy believes this year he is a unique case. Most players aren’t going to skip a $20 million tournament such as the FedEx St. Jude Championship or this week’s BMW Championship. Especially one with no cut.
And not all players are set to make the Tour Championship next week, which is another reason to play.
“And a lot of the guys aren't 18 years into their professional career either,” said McIlroy, 35. “I feel like I'm in a little bit of a different position than some of the guys. I'm playing nine times between now and the end of the year, so I've still got a pretty busy stretch coming up.
“I just think that extra week off will do me good with the events coming up. Some big events that are important to me—the Irish Open, Wentworth (BMW PGA Championship), obviously the Ryder Cup. I want to try to win my seventh Race to Dubai over in Europe as well. There's some things that are still important to me that I want to go play in. That was a big part of the reason why I wanted to take that extra week off last week.”
After the BMW Championship and the Tour Championship, McIlroy has just one week off before playing the Irish Open and the BMW PGA, the DP World Tour’s flagship event. After another week off, it’s the Ryder Cup.
Three weeks later, he is scheduled to play the India Championship, then in November he has back-to-back weeks in the Middle East at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship and the DP World Tour Championship, the season-ending event of the DP World Tour’s schedule.
McIlroy leads the Race to Dubai standings over Tyrrell Hatton.
He is also scheduled to play the Australian Open in December, an event that counts on the DP World Tour for the 2026 season.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Rory McIlroy Clarifies Why He Skipped Last Week's Event.