Staff Reporter.
Four-times major winner Rory McIlroy will forfeit $3 million from his Player Impact Performance (PIP) earnings given his decision to skip this week’s RBC Heritage, a PGA Tour source confirmed on Friday.
That total represents 25 per cent of the $12 million bonus he was awarded for finishing second behind Tiger Woods on last year’s PIP list which rewards the golfers who have the biggest positive impact on the PGA Tour.
Golfers can skip one designated event and still collect their full bonus but McIlroy has now missed two of them, which the PGA Tour created to get the top players competing against each other more often amid a threat posed by LIV Golf.
To miss a second designated event without penalty, players need an excused absence, like an injury, or risk losing part of their PIP payout from the previous year.
World No 3 McIlroy announced his decision to withdraw from the RBC Heritage at Hilton Head Island in South Carolina on the heels of his missed cut at the Masters, which was his sixth PGA Tour start in nine weeks.
McIlroy fellow PGA Tour stars appear to have little sympathy for the Northern Irishman.
‘I feel like Rory was leading the charge on the changes that have been made and he helped make the rules,’ Netflix’s Full Swing star Joel Dahmen said, via Sports Illustrated.
‘He knew what the rules were. So, he knew what was coming. He also has so much money, he doesn’t care about $3 million.’
World No. 6 Xander Schauffele echoed Dahmen’s comments, highlighting that the majority of the changes were what McIlroy wanted.
‘Rules are the rules,’ Schauffele said after his round on Thursday at the RBC Heritage. ‘So, I mean, for the most part, a lot of what he wanted is what’s happening. And the irony is that he’s not here.’
McIlroy’s friend Justin Thomas was slightly less harsh on the decision but did admit that it shouldn’t come as a surprise to the World No. 3.
‘It doesn’t matter who you are, that’s a ton of money,’ Thomas said of the $3 million. ‘All of us knew going into the year what the situation was and what we had to do to get extra X or Y and for him Y is a lot in this situation, finishing second (In the PIP rankings).
‘So, it wasn’t a surprise to him or any of us it just was kind of where he ended up in the rankings and not playing this week is I guess a consequence.’
In the McIlroy-focused episode of Netflix’s docuseries, Full swing, released in February, the 33-year-old admitted that some players had been blindsided by the ‘mandatory’ elevated events from the commissioner but he went on to to defend to move.
Meanwhile Jimmy Walker carded his second straight round of 65 to grab a three-shot lead through two rounds of the RBC Heritage on Friday in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.
Compiled by Lehlohonolo Lehana.