Rory McIlroy to skip PGA Tour's FedEx Cup Playoffs opener in Memphis despite $20m prize pot
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Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy will skip the Fed Ex Cup opener at TPC Southwind
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World number on Scottie Scheffler will return after bagging his fourth major at The Open
McIlroy finished last year's St Jude Championship second last on nine-over-par.
A year prior, McIlroy finished solo third-place after he shot a final-round 65.
His absence means fans will have to wait to see the Northern Irishman in action again, with his last outing coming at The Open in Portrush where he tied for seventh.
The Holywood hotshot is yet to give a reason for skipping the multi-million Dollar event.
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The Northern Irishman will now miss out on picking up any of the FedEx St. Jude Championship is $20 million - the winner's share is $3.6 million.
The top 70 in the FedEx Cup standings after the Wyndham Championship make it to Memphis - with only 50 progressing to the BMW Championship in Maryland on August 14.
McIlroy is currently second in the points race behind Scheffler.
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Meanwhile,
The Offaly star will be hoping for a charge after a recent slide down the FedEx Cup ladder.
Shocking moment drunk passenger, 29, steals airport golf cart and goes on bizarre rampaging joyride through terminal
Clara native Lowry sit 19th on the table as the first playoff event approaches.
Japan's Hideki Matsuyama is the defending champion of the first event of the playoffs.
All the action is live on Sky Sports Golf from next Thursday.
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Irish Times
10 hours ago
- Irish Times
Rory McIlroy skips first FedEx Cup playoff event as Shane Lowry returns to action in Memphis
Although 70 players qualified for the FedEx St Jude Classic in Memphis – the first of the PGA Tour 's playoff events – there will only be 69 in the field, with Masters champion Rory McIlroy opting to skip the event. McIlroy, instead, will resume tournament action at next week's BMW Championship at Caves Valley outside Washington DC before teeing up in the Tour Championship in Atlanta the following week where, in a change of format, all 30 players to reach that finale will start on the same score rather than the weighted starts of recent years. While McIlroy is a high-profile absentee from the St Jude Classic, all the other players who qualified are competing, including Shane Lowry – currently 19th on the FedEx Cup standings – who is playing for the first time since The Open in Portrush. On the DP World Tour , Conor Purcell is the only Irish player in the field for the Nexo Championship which will be held at Trump International Aberdeen in Scotland. READ MORE Leona Maguire , meanwhile, is not defending her PIF London championship at the Centurion Club outside London this week where four Irish players – Sara Byrne, Lauren Walsh, Anna Foster and Annabel Wilson – are competing in the LET event. Maguire's next tournament outing is scheduled to be the Canadian Open on the LPGA Tour in a fortnight's time. Cameron Young finally breaks through on PGA Tour Perhaps the wait was worth it for Cameron Young, whose breakthrough win in the Wyndham Championship was a milestone 1,000th first-time winner on the PGA Tour. Young's win propelled him to 15th on the US Ryder Cup standings in his late bid to make Keegan Bradley's team for the match against Europe in Bethpage next month and up to 21st in the updated world standings. A late decision to switch to a new Titleist prototype ball – one he had tried in practice – was, Young admitted, a factor in finally discovering the art of winning. 'It's just a tiny bit different. But I think it definitely contributed to some of the good play this week,' said Young of the ProV1x prototype which helped reduce spin. In his fourth season on the PGA Tour, Young had registered seven runners-up finishes. Word of Mouth 'At the end of the day, it's just a game. That's what I think about, and I enjoyed it out there, and I just love that adrenaline feeling. It's so good. It's like a massive hit.' – Charley Hull on getting a buzz even though coming up short in her quest for a breakthrough Major title. Hull's runner-up finish in the AIG Women's Open was her fourth second-place finish and 10th top-10 in her Major career. By the Numbers: 14 There are 14 Irish players competing in this week's Irish Challenge at Killeen Castle in Dunsany, Co Meath, on the Hotelplanner Tour: Max Kennedy, Jonny Caldwell, Liam Nolan, Alex Maguire, Mark Power, Robert Moran, Jack Madden, John Murphy, Ronan Mullarney, Paul McBride, JR Galbraith, Daniel Mulligan, Liam Grehan and Dermot McElroy. The 72-hole tournament starts on Thursday. Irish golfer Des Smyth. Photograph: Tom Honan/Inpho On this day: August 4th, 1979 Des Smyth had ditched a prospective career as an accountant to chase his dreams to play on the European Tour and, five years into life on tour, the Meath man finally secured his breakthrough victory when winning the Sun Alliance Matchplay Championship at Fulford in England. It was his first of eight career wins on the European Tour – which saw him win across four decades, winning in the '70s, '80s, '90s and Noughties – and he did it in style, defeating future world number one Nick Price of Zimbabwe with an eagle-three on the 18th hole. All square playing the last, Smyth recalled his breakthrough moment: 'Par five, the last. Both of us down the fairway. Both of us on the green. He was on 25 feet. I was just inside him. He missed and I holed. And I won, one up.' 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Irish Daily Mirror
18 hours ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
Rory McIlroy collects gigantic cheque without swinging a club at Wyndham
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The Irish Sun
a day ago
- The Irish Sun
Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler land HUGE cash windfall without swinging a club ahead of PGA Tour FedEx Cup Playoffs
Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler raked in $28m without swinging a club at the Wyndham Championship COM-CASH Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler land HUGE cash windfall without swinging a club ahead of PGA Tour FedEx Cup Playoffs FIVE-TIME major winner Rory McIlroy didn't swing a club at the Wyndham Championship. But the Holywood hotshot still walked away with a cool $10 million. 2 Scottie Scheffler landed top prize in the Top 10 Comcast and revamped FedEx Cup regular season payouts 2 Rory McIlroy landed in second place on the ladder - and pocket a cool ten million bucks While all eyes were on the final putts dropping at Sedgefield Country Club as players at the Wyndham Championship on Sunday night - it was Scottie Scheffler - and McIlroy - laughing all the way to the bank thanks to the restructured FedExCup bonus payouts. Cam Young claimed his first tour win in the last qualifying event on Sunday evening before this week's playoffs begin at the St Jude Classic. Scheffler, who skipped the event entirely, clinched the regular season No.1 spot, banking $18 million without striking a shot. The world number one banked $8 million from topping the Comcast Business Tour Top 10 and another $10 million from the revamped FedExCup bonus pool. McIlroy, meanwhile, held firm in second place on the points list and was the only other player to earn an eight-figure payday on Sunday after also opting to sit out the Wyndham Championship. The Northern Irishman bagged a tidy $10 million for finishing runner-up in the regular season standings. Previously, all $100 million in FedExCup bonuses were handed out based on final finishes at the Tour Championship. But with the PGA Tour scrapping 'Starting Strokes' in favour of a traditional 72-hole stroke-play event at East Lake this year, the cash is now being dished out across three key checkpoints. McIlroy is also well on course for another lucrative bump. That's if he holds on to second place on the points ladder after the BMW Championship in two weeks. Shocking moment drunk passenger, 29, steals airport golf cart and goes on bizarre rampaging joyride through terminal Down ace McIlroy would pocket a further $3 million before heading to the Tour Championship, where a clean win could be worth another $10 million on top. The PGA Tour's Playoffs get underway this week with the FedEx St. Jude Championship at TPC Southwind in Memphis, Tennessee. But McIlroy bizarrely is not playing in the event due to unknown reason. A $20 million prize purse is on the line as the top 70 players from the season-long FedEx Cup standings. World No.1 Scottie Scheffler leads the betting as the red-hot favourite, while Japan's Hideki Matsuyama returns as defending champion. A cool $3.6 million is up for grabs for whoever comes out on top on Sunday. All the action is live on Sky Sports Golf from Thursday. FULL COMCAST AND REGULAR SEASON PAYOUTS
