Since making his debut in 2010, Rory McIlroy has featured in nearly every Memorial Tournament. He only missed it twice in his illustrious career. Once was in 2015, the Irishman was exhausted from a tight schedule that saw him compete in a lot of events consecutively. In 2017, a rib injury troubled him throughout the season, and he had already withdrawn from many events. The Memorial Tournament was one of those that he had purposely taken off his calendar to recover from his injury. And now in 2025, he is skipping the Tournament once again.

After announcing his absence back in 2015, even the tournament host, Jack Nicklaus, supported McIlroy’s decision to catch a break before the U.S. Open. The same was covered by Sky Sports as Nicklaus was quoted as saying, “He came to me and talked to me and said he was in a pickle. I said, ‘Rory, don’t worry about it. You and I are very close, we have no issues. If you have stuff you gotta do in Ireland, you got to do what’s right for you. You gotta get yourself ready for the US Open.’”

Fast forward to now, the storyline largely remains the same, but has certain pillars altered. Say, for instance, the 85-year-old this time around didn’t receive a phone call from the 36-year-old explaining why he is skipping the Memorial Tournament in favour of RBC Heritage leading into the U.S. Open. Hence, the fans criticized the 29-time PGA Tour winner for skipping the G.O.A.T.’s event after seeking his assistance for the ANGC win earlier this year.

However, Nicklaus was far more understanding than the netizens of McIlroy’s decision. He said, “Yeah, it surprised me, but, you know, guys have their schedules and things they want to do. I don’t hold anything against McIlroy for that. He does what he likes to play. I know he likes to play a lot in a row… It’s very difficult, very difficult.” It seems that the 73-time PGA Tour winner understands where McIlroy’s priorities lie. And after playing in every Memorial Tournament from 2018-2024, he has every right to skip the event this year. Jay Monahan also had something similar to say as Golf Digest shared his opinion on X.

The tweet read, “Jay Monahan says he isn’t concerned about Rory McIlroy skipping the Memorial, despite it being a signature event.” In the article attached, Monahan further added, “The beauty of our model is that our players have the ability to select their schedule. What Rory McIlroy has done, I think he’s played in this tournament every year since 2017. And you look at the tournaments that he’s supported. I don’t have any concern, because you look at this on balance over time, his support of our tournaments and our partners is extraordinary.”

Despite facing his own set of issues with big names missing Signature events, the PGA Tour Commissioner was quite calm when it came to McIlroy’s decision. This just indicates that the Irishman has clearly laid out his schedule and talked Monahan through it. It is worth noting that Rory McIlroy paid a heavy price when he skipped a couple of Signature events last time. In 2023, after skipping the RBC Heritage, the 36-year-old forfeited $3 million from the Player Impact Program. However, breaking the same rule in 2024, he was supposed to be fined 25% of his PIP bonus. Interesting, a recent rule change by Monahan favored McIlroy as he was not fined the $1.1 million he would have had to pay from the $4.5 million bonus for missing 3 Signature events.

However, others were far more critical of McIlroy’s decision, and they didn’t shy away from expressing themselves on the social forums.

Despite support from Jack Nicklaus and Jay Monahan, Rory McIlroy faces harsh criticism from others

One of the names to question Rory McIlroy’s motives was Mark Immelman on The Second Cut Golf Podcast. When he was asked about the Grand Slam champion’s decision to skip the Memorial Tournament, the 54-year-old said, “He’s doing the international media tour because he is an international guy who plays on the PGA Tour. So you have to respect the motives. Should he have called? Yes. Will they talk? I am sure they will.” 

While understanding the decision he made, Immelman believes that McIlroy’s only fault was that he didn’t call Nicklaus to explain the situation. It’s not as if the Irishman isn’t aware of the courtesy call, as he had done the same when he skipped the 2015 Memorial Tournament.

After Jay Monahan’s statement, Phil Mickelson also dropped in on the conversation to attack the PGA Tour commissioner and the 36-year-old. The LIV Golf pro said, “The beauty of our model” 😂😂 It’s why the pga tour won’t ever be able to move throughout the world, why sponsors don’t know what they are buying, why fans haven’t seen all best compete against each other consistently for decades, and why no other sport successfully uses this model. It was great for me and all players but not good for anyone else.”

Even here, Mickelson continued to promote the benefits of moving to LIV Golf while berating the PGA Tour and its players. However, that shouldn’t faze Rory McIlroy, as he is sticking to his goals of managing his schedule better in 2025.