MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Rory McIlroy is likely to fall one event short of the 15-event minimum required for players to maintain his “home-tour” status, which allows him to compete on both the PGA Tour and DP World Tour without the need of conflicting event releases.
Even counting this week’s FedEx St. Jude Championship, which seemed like a last-minute addition to McIlroy’s schedule, the world No. 2 will still likely only play 14 Tour events this season. He could add an event from the fall schedule to meet his minimum but he said that’s currently not the plan.
According to the player handbook, the Tour can reduce the event requirement due to “medical reasons or other extraordinary circumstances” and that appears to be the likely outcome.
“[Tour commissioner and CEO Brian Rolapp] and I have been in constant dialogue, basically since he took the job last year. I think we’ve built up a really good relationship and, yeah, we’ve had a couple of conversations last week about what I can do with the Tour going forward to, I guess, fulfill the obligation to, I guess, keep my membership,” McIlroy said Wednesday at TPC Southwind.
If McIlroy were to lose his PGA Tour status, he would be limited to seven starts on sponsor exemptions as a non-member as well as his exemptions into the four major championships.
“We’ve had productive conversations, we’re figuring it out and it will all be fine. It will be a little bit of work between us,” McIlroy said. “Especially with the strategic alliance with the DP World Tour I sort of pride myself on being a global player. I’ve got a lot of golf left this year after these events. I play six times after the Tour Championship all around the world, so I’ve tried to pace myself for that throughout the year to get to this point, but, yeah, Brian and I have had some good dialogue and we’re figuring it out.”
McIlroy said he added this week’s playoff opener at TPC Southwind to his schedule to avoid an extended break before the last two events of the season, where he will have a chance to win his fourth FedExCup.
“Having four weeks off going into the last two tournaments of the year was probably going to be a little bit too much,” he said.
After the Tour Championship, McIlroy plans to play in Ireland, England, India, twice in the United Arab Emirates and Australia before the end of the year.
