It’s almost time for the FedEx Cup playoffs! 2025 was an action-packed season that saw many big stars rise to the occasion. Scottie Scheffler has dominated, like he has been doing for the past couple of years. He captured 4 titles, including 2 majors, after a slow start that was filled with a lot of frustrating results. Sepp Straka, Ryan Fox, Brian Campbell, and Ben Griffin have all won 2 titles each this year. They will be on the field for the FedEx St. Jude Championship 2025 next week. However, Rory McIlroy has decided to skip the first playoff event, and he is facing a lot of heat for it.
As confirmed by Underdog Golf on X, McIlroy will not be on the field at TPC Southwind. Dan Rapaport found the Irishman’s decision to skip the event quite intriguing. In response, he retweeted, “Wonder if this will be a trend with the new Tour Championship format. Rory knows he’s making it to East Lake no matter what, and doesn’t need to accumulate points in Playoffs because it wipes clean before East Lake. It’s hot as hell in Memphis, he’ll be fresh in Baltimore.”
For anyone who missed the updates in the last 8 months, Jay Monahan & Co. changed the format for the TOUR Championship from this season on. Unlike last year, playing the first couple of playoff events won’t have any effect on their position on the TOUR Championship. The format of the event has also been changed into a 72-hole strokeplay event. Rank-based starting stroke advantage has been removed, and everyone will start the event on par.
McIlroy had already suggested that he is going to have a much lighter PGA Tour schedule in 2025. As Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Justin Thomas, & Co. battle it out in the heat of Memphis, the 36-year-old will enjoy the cool weather back home before coming back to the States in a few days.
While the move may seem wise on paper for Rory McIlroy, the fans weren’t as pleased to learn about it. They spoke their mind under Rapaport’s tweet, lashing out at the Irishman for his ‘loser move’.
Netizens left distraught over Rory McIlroy’s outrageous decision
Rory McIlroy has been giving hints about narrowing down on his PGA Tour schedule for nearly a year now. But he has still received a lot of backlash for skipping big events where most of the other stars are playing. One of the fans commented, “Loser move. It’s the playoffs.” The fact that so many high-ranked golfers are on the field for the event clearly indicates how important it is. McIlroy overlooking it does not put him in a good light. This is not the first time they were left disappointed with him for skipping an important event. They had expressed their disappointment over the Irishman deciding to overlook the Memorial Tournament earlier this year as well.
There were others who blamed the event for allowing the 29-time PGA Tour champion to not participate in it. A comment read, “What kinds of farce play-offs allows them to skip.” Traditionally, in other sports, playoff events usually require mandatory participation, or the said player/team would get eliminated from the competition altogether. That’s not the case in the FedEx Cup, yet. Some others said, “Example A why they need to fix the playoffs,” “The “playoffs” don’t sound like real playoffs,” and “Golf playoffs are just dumb.”
The new format of the FedEx Cup playoffs has certainly come back to bite the outgoing commissioner, Jay Monahan. Brian Rolapp & Co. will need to re-strategize and work around a new concept to ensure this mistake is not repeated from 2026 onwards.
