{"id":334641,"date":"2026-03-08T01:17:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T01:17:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/334641\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T01:17:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T01:17:16","slug":"rory-mcilroy-to-defend-players-title-despite-withdrawal-from-arnold-palmer-invitational-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/334641\/","title":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy to defend Players title despite withdrawal from Arnold Palmer Invitational \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/rory-mcilroy\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/rory-mcilroy\">Rory McIlroy<\/a> is confident of defending his Players Championship title from Thursday despite withdrawing from the Arnold Palmer Invitational 35 minutes before his third round on Saturday. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">McIlroy suffered back spasms, with the Northern Irishman unwilling to potentially put appearances at the Players and next month\u2019s Masters at risk by taking to the course at Bay Hill. McIlroy will also be defending the crown at Augusta National.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cWhile warming up in the gym this morning, I felt a small twinge in my back,\u201d McIlroy said. \u201cAs I started hitting balls on the range before the round, it worsened and developed into muscle spasms in my lower back. Unfortunately, I\u2019m not able to continue and have to withdraw. I was excited to compete this weekend. I wish the Arnold Palmer Invitational a great finish and look forward to being back next year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">After a fine 68 on Friday, McIlroy had been four under par and in the mix at this PGA Tour stop in Florida. Rather than pursue a second Arnold Palmer Invitational win, McIlroy headed across the state to his home in West Palm Beach, where he will rest and take further medical advice before his planned arrival at Sawgrass, in the north of Florida, at the start of the week. McIlroy is due to undertake a Players press conference on Wednesday morning, when a fitness update will now be the key theme.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">This marks just the second time in McIlroy\u2019s PGA Tour career \u2013 and the first since 2013 \u2013 that he has withdrawn from an event. He encountered back problems before the 2023 Tour Championship but played, finishing fourth. McIlroy\u2019s exit continued the theme of high-profile departures from Bay Hill. Those who had missed the halfway cut included Shane Lowry, Justin Thomas, Justin Rose and Keegan Bradley. \u2013 Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy is confident of defending his Players Championship title from Thursday despite withdrawing from the Arnold Palmer&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":334642,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,91189,1394,112],"class_list":["post-334641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-pga-tour","tag-rory-mcilroy","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=334641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/334642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}