Rory McIlroy’s $3 Million Hit For Skipping Heritage Draws Little Sympathy From Fellow Tour Pros
HILTON HEAD, S.C. – There is no crying in baseball. Apparently, there is no crying in professional golf either, at least not for Rory McIlroy.
The first round of the RBC Heritage started on Thursday without Rory McIlroy, who by PGA Tour rules was scheduled to play this week.
McIlroy’s absence Thursday wasn’t a surprise, as the PGA Tour made the news public that the Ulsterman was withdrawing for his second designated event of the season after missing the Sentry Tournament of Champions in January.
The cost of that withdrawal was made public on Thursday: $3 million or 25 percent from his Player Impact Program bonus of $12 million from 2022.
It unclear if you call the docking of $3 million a fine or a penalty, but one thing is certain: McIlroy will likely not feel the pain if you ask his fellow professionals, who collectively exhibited little sympathy over the loss of $3 million.
“I feel like Rory was leading the charge on the changes that have been made and he helped make the rules,” follow Tour pro Joel Dahmen said about McIlroy’s predicament. “He knew what the rules were. So, he knew what was coming. He also has so much money, he doesn't care about $3 million.”
While the last part about not caring about $3 million was tongue-in-cheek, Dahmen succinctly stated what many tour pros may be thinking: McIlroy made his own bed. Now he has to lie on it.
McIlroy, along with Tiger Woods, is one of the leading faces of the new PGA Tour and its offensive against LIV Golf. When either player speaks everyone listens, including PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan.
Monahan, who has total discretion to fine or penalize a player under the PGA Tour rules, took little time in making his feelings known about McIlroy’s absence.
“Rules are the rules,” Xander Schauffele said after his round on Thursday at the RBC Heritage. “So, I mean, for the most part, a lot of what he wanted is what's happening. And the irony is that he's not here.”
Irony?
“Strange” feels like a better word, since McIlroy spent much of his time over the last eight months advocating for this system. It took until April before he ran afoul of it.
Neither McIlroy nor his representatives responded to Sports Illustrated’s requests for comment for this story. But with McIlroy presumably back in Jupiter with his family, it’s fair to question if the $3 million hit is a fair punishment.
In court documents last week in the UK, it was disclosed that the DP World Tour, prior to LIV Golf, had never issued a fine larger than £12,000 pounds.
The PGA Tour’s policy is not to disclose fines or penalties, but it would be hard to fathom that any punishment beyond six figures has ever been issued by the Tour.
However you want to characterize the $3 million, players didn’t seem to have much sympathy for the player ranked No. 3 in both the OWGR and the Sports Illustrated World Golf Rankings.
“It doesn't matter who you are, that's a ton of money,” Justin Thomas said of the $3 million. “All of us knew going into the year what the situation was and what we had to do to get extra X or Y and for him Y is a lot in this situation, finishing second (In the PIP rankings). So, it wasn't a surprise to him or any of us it just was kind of where he ended up in the rankings and not playing this week is I guess a consequence.”
Oddly enough, the incentive to play all but one of the designated events will be amended next year, and if McIlroy does miss one, two or three, he would not experience any financial setback.
But that’s next year.
The only way McIlroy may recoup some of his losses this year would be if Monahan, using the discretion granted to him as commissioner, decides that extenuating circumstances existed for McIlroy to miss this week’s Tour event.
“I imagined he'd communicate to the membership,” Schauffele said while adding that it would be best if Monahan told membership sooner rather than later what exactly is happening with McIlroy.
“It's a lot of money. It's a big deal. A lot of people want to know what's going on,” Schauffele said.
Rickie Fowler agreed that whatever decision Monahan makes needs to be disclosed.
“I think that's a big thing that's been talked about for the last year, is having more transparency and just good communication between players the tour,” Fowler said. “I think that includes you (the media) as well. And ultimately, the more transparency and the more everyone's on the same page, the better.”