PGA Tour Commissioner Offers Lame Excuse While Defending Rory McIlroy Skipping Third Signature Event
The Memorial is the third signature event the star golfer has passed on in 2025.
Jay Monahan defending Rory McIlroy's decision to skip this week's Memorial isn't the least bit surprising. Monahan is the commissioner of the PGA Tour, and McIlroy has long been the unofficial spokesperson of the Tour. Therefore, there isn't a circumstance imaginable where Monahan would ring McIlroy out to dry.
Despite that reality, that doesn't make Monahan's excuse for McIlroy's absence at the Memorial valid.
McIlroy was a driving force behind the PGA Tour's introduction of signature events featuring larger purses and more-limited fields in 2023. His skipping of this week's Memorial marks the third signature event he's passed on in 2025.
Not having McIlory in a tournament field hurts, especially when we're talking about the strongest fields in golf outside the four major championships.
Monahan is well aware that McIlroy's absence at the Tour's marquee stops hurts the organization he's paid to run, but that didn't stop him from defending McIlroy's decision to say "no thanks" to a signature event for the third time in five months.
"You look at the beauty of our model is that our players have the ability to select their schedule," Monahan told reporters at the site of the Memorial, according to Sports Illustrated. "Rory McIlroy I think has played this tournament every year since 2017 [13 times overall] and you look at the tournaments he has 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."
Jay Monahan sticks up for Rory McIlroy. (Photo by Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images)
Monahan using the word "beauty" to describe a model that doesn't bring all the best players on Tour together as much as possible is certainly a choice.
When the signature events were first introduced in 2023, players were required to play all but one of them on the calendar. That requirement no longer exists, which in reality is McIlroy simply using the system, or lack thereof, to what he perceives as an advantage of getting to play a more limited schedule.
Monahan believes McIlroy deserves some slack when it comes to passing on signature events because he's already won a bunch. Those are his words, not an interpretation on our end.
"Look at the season that Rory has had. He’s had a life-altering season. He’s won the Players Championship, you win the Masters Tournament, you win the [career] Grand Slam, and you win the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am," Monahan said.
One would think that Monahan would be publicly pushing for McIlroy to tee it up in the Tour's signature events because he's in the middle of a historic season. Instead, Monahan is using McIlroy's successful year as a free pass.