Rory McIlroy stunning revelation costs PGA Tour leverage vs. LIV Golf

A full PGA Tour schedule can be grueling for even the best of players. Unlike most professional team sports, golf happens year-round. The schedule can be even more daunting if a player is struggling or failing to live up to expectations. That appears to be the case for one of the world’s greatest players, Rory McIlroy.

Speaking to the Telegraph Sport after the opening round of the HSBC Abu Dhabi Championship, McIlroy made a stunning announcement.

“There’s a few tournaments that I played this year that I don’t usually play and that I might not play next year,” McIlroy said. “Like, I played the Cognizant [Classic] in Palm Beach Gardens, [the Texas Open in] San Antonio and the [RBC Heritage in] Hilton Head. And I’ll probably not play the first playoff event in Memphis. I mean, I finished basically dead last there this year and only moved down one spot in the play-off standings.”

It is not surprising to hear that McIlroy is cutting down on his schedule. But if what he predicted comes to fruition, the World No. 3 will skip not just run-of-the-mill weekend tournaments on the PGA Tour but a $20,000 million Signature Events and the first round of the FedEx Cup Playoffs.

The PGA Tour is already bleeding talent as the upstart LIV Golf League continues to poach. The Saudi-backed golf league most recently landed Jon Rahm for an estimated $400 million. That was just to sign and does not include any winnings. It is hard enough for the PGA Tour to keep up monetarily.

Rory McIlroy’s legacy is built on winning majors. He came out of the gate firing, winning four majors in the first few years of his career. That created the promise of future glory. Instead, McIlroy has fallen just short numerous times and has gone more than 10 years since winning his last major.

Maybe the extra time off will allow him to re-focus and continue working on his new swing. But one thing is for certain, it won’t help the PGA Tour’s ratings.