Rory McIlroy is in the field at this week’s 2026 FedEx St. Jude Championship, the opening event of the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup playoffs. Maybe it shouldn’t be a surprise that one of the top pros is competing in one of only three playoff events.
But it is when you consider that McIlroy decided to skip the playoff opener last season. As arguably the Tour’s biggest star, his absence from last year’s FedEx St. Jude caused a stir.
While he isn’t No. 2 in the FedEx Cup rankings to start the playoffs as he was last year, his current position of 12th all but assures him a spot in the playoff-ending Tour Championship.
So what changed in a year? In his pre-tournament press conference before an ugly opening-round performance, McIlroy tried to explain his reasoning, pointing to schedule differences and a desire to “show support” for the PGA Tour.
Rory McIlroy reveals why he didn’t skip FedEx St. Jude Championship this year
The first reason McIlroy provided for not skipping the FedEx St. Jude this year has to do with his schedule. The last tournament the World No. 2 played was the Open Championship, which ended on July 19.
If he’d skipped the FedEx St. Jude again, he’d have four weeks off heading into the second playoff event, the BMW Championship. Taking that much time off before the season-ending events would have been “a little too much,” McIlroy explained on Wednesday.
“Yeah, a few different things went into that decision. I think having four weeks off going into the last two events of the year was probably going to be a little too much for me in terms of wanting to be competitive,” McIlroy said. “So this is a good week — obviously I want to play well, but it’s also a good week to just see where my game is, do a lot of practice, or as much as I can in the heat.”
The strange thing about McIlroy’s explanation is that his schedule was set up the same way last year. He finished the 2025 Open on July 20th, then took four weeks off before playing the BMW Championship and Tour Championship.
But the bigger reason McIlroy pointed to is the fact that he thinks “it’s important” for top pros like himself to show up at the FedEx St. Jude, and all the playoff events, to “show support” for the Tour.
“Yeah, I think it’s important to be here. It’s the Tour’s playoffs, and I think it’s important for all the players to be here,” McIlroy said.
What he did not directly explain is why he didn’t think it was important to support the Tour by playing last year’s FedEx St. Jude Championship. However, he did reveal that he’d had “good conversations” with PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp recently.
“I’ve had some good conversations with Brian Rolapp over the last couple weeks,” McIlroy said. “Yeah, I think it’s important for me to be here and show support and looking forward to teeing it up.”
Perhaps it was those discussions with Rolapp that inspired a change of heart. Whatever the reasons, McIlroy did show up to the FedEx St. Jude, though the rust from three weeks of vacation showed. In Thursday’s opening round at TPC Southwind, McIlroy struggled to a four-over 74 and begins the second round in 68th out of 69 players.
