It is a Signature Event week on the PGA Tour and one of the larger ones at that with play happening at Jack’s place at the Memorial.
Jack Nicklaus is in fact hosting the Memorial Tournament per usual and if you are a professional golfer it is likely a dream of yours to walk off of 18 and shake the hand of one of the greatest people to ever swing a club. That makes sense.
Reigning Masters Champion Rory McIlroy will not be in attendance at the Memorial, something that sparked some criticism when it was first announced last week. Players are entitled to construct and adjust their schedules as they wish and it is worth noting that the PGA Championship was just two weeks ago, but this is the Memorial. It is Jack’s place.
This may sound like posturing, but the reality of the situation is that missing it raises eyebrows from some. Given who Rory is, a Career Grand Slam winner, some people feel he has an obligation to the game of golf to be at events such as these. We can debate that idea forever, obviously.
One thing that is seemingly less open for interpretation is that Rory could have handled his absence from the Memorial with a bit more tact. Speaking on Wednesday, Mr. Nicklaus noted that Rory did not reach out to him to share that he would not be playing in the event.
Mr. Nicklaus shared that he was surprised that Rory was not attending, but he did note tht players have things they have to structure their careers around and shared that he had to go through that himself when he was an active player. That makes sense as well.
If you watch the clip above in its entirety it is clear that Mr. Nicklaus does not want to imply anything negative about Rory missing the Memorial. That is respectable and commendable.
No one is saying that Rory is being disrespectful in going about things the way that he is, but a phone call in this instance would have maybe been a proper move.
Beyond the element that involves Jack Nicklaus, this is now the third Signature Event of the season that Rory is skipping. The days of arguing about the PGA Tour against LIV and what is right and what makes sense and all of that are not worth re-visiting, but it is worth noting that Rory was one of the proponents for the structure that his Tour has in existence right now. Missing a Signature Event is reasonable, but. missing three before June is going to draw criticism in and of itself.
There is no specifically right or wrong thing happening here as Rory is still a global ambassador for the game. We can argue about the manner in which he chose to go about not playing in the Memorial and whether or not he should play in it at all, but that speaks to larger issues surrounding professional golf at the moment (as if that weren’t obvious enough).
Does Rory owe the game more because of who he is and the stature that he carries? That argument can be made. Equally though one could offer that Rory has earned some grace and freedom to operate as he sees fit.
Round and round we go.
