Jack Nicklaus ‘Surprised’ By Rory McIlroy’s Decision to Skip Memorial Tournament

The world No. 2 is playing next week in Canada instead of this week’s signature event, and Jack Nicklaus said he had no hard feelings and added that he hasn’t talked to McIlroy.

Rory McIlroy, pictured visiting with Jack Nicklaus after the final round of the 2023 Memorial, is not playing this week. / Jorge Lemus/NurPhoto via Getty Images

DUBLIN, Ohio — Jack Nicklaus said he learned last week before the field for his Memorial Tournament was announced that Masters champion Rory McIlroy would not be part of it.

McIlroy, who plays at Nicklaus’s Bear’s Club in Florida and sought the Golden Bear’s counsel earlier this year prior to the Masters, elected to skip this week’s $20 million signature event at Muirfield Village Golf Club.

He is playing next week at the RBC Canadian Open followed by the U.S. Open and then likely the Travelers Championship, another signature event.

It is the third time McIlroy has skipped a signature event this year after missing the season-opening Sentry and the RBC Heritage.

“Yeah, it surprised me,” Nicklaus said Tuesday in a news conference in advance of the Memorial Tournament which begins Thursday. “But guys have got schedules and got things they do. And I haven’t talked to him for him to tell me why or why not. It’s just his call. I made a lot of calls that I had to make when I played to play or not play, and sometimes it wasn’t as popular as people thought it was. But sometimes you have to make those calls.

“I don’t hold anything against Rory for that. He did what he likes to play. I know he likes to play so many in a row. He likes to play the week before a U.S. Open. And so that’s what he's doing ... it’s very difficult, very difficult.

“I’m a big Rory fan, I always have been. I’m sure that I will remain that way. I just, I was a little surprised, yes.”

Later, following the news conference, Nicklaus was asked again about McIlroy, the subject somewhat uncomfortable.

“I don’t want to throw Rory under the bus,” Nicklaus said. “I know he’s got a schedule for him and what works for him and I understand that because I did the same thing and I had to do that sometimes. He’s a good kid.”

Nicklaus, 85, is presiding over the 50th playing of the Memorial, the tournament he founded on the Muirfield Village course he designed. The 18-time major winner who won 73 PGA Tour events won his own tournament twice, in 1977 and 1984. Scottie Scheffler is the defending champion of the 72-player event.

McIlroy has played the Memorial 13 times going back to 2010, his best finish a tie for fourth in 2016. He has five top-10 finishes and was tied for 15th last year, a week before finishing second at the U.S. Open.

This year, the PGA Tour moved the Memorial back to its traditional date following Memorial Day. McIlroy, who said earlier this year he planned to reduce his schedule, will return next week at a tournament he has won twice.

After winning the Masters, McIlroy played in the team event at the Zurich Classic with Shane Lowry before a tie for seventh at the Truist Championship, a signature event he won last year. He had a disappointing tie for 47th at the PGA Championship two weeks ago, where he never spoke to reporters after any of his rounds.

Nicklaus had said during the first round of the Masters that he expected McIlroy to win the tournament after having talked with the golfer previously about the way he planned to play Augusta National.

“I didn’t know whether he was going to win or not,” Nicklaus said. “After the Masters, I dropped him a note, and I told him, I don't think anybody's won by having four double bogeys. And I said, ‘but that just showed me how much talent you have to overcome that to win and how you played some unbelievably spectacular shots,’ such as the iron at 7 that he hit over the tree that actually hit the tree. The phenomenal iron he hit at 15, the shot he hit at 17.

“Then, of course, to miss that little short putt at 18 on a pitch-out on his second shot with a wedge, which was not very good. But he played some bad shots. The shot he hit at 13, I can't believe.

“But anyway, I was very happy for him. It was a great win, and it got the monkey off his back. And to me, the monkey was not the [career] Grand Slam. The monkey was the Masters. Now, the Grand Slam was a product of winning the Masters. If you ask him which was more important, I think he would have to say the Masters. That's because it was.”