{"id":702427,"date":"2026-07-20T23:45:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T23:45:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/702427\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T23:45:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T23:45:13","slug":"rory-mcilroy-says-pga-tour-is-not-his-main-priority-as-he-plans-more-time-away-from-us-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/702427\/","title":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy says PGA Tour is not his main priority as he plans more time away from US \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

As important as the PGA Tour<\/a> has been to Rory McIlroy<\/a> in carving out his stellar career so far, it would seem to be less so going forward.<\/p>\n

With the changes to the FedEx Cup playoff structure so that the Tour Championship, with its wheelbarrows of green backs, is a standalone tournament in itself with, no weighting off the order of merit, McIlroy looks set to skip both the St Jude Classic and the BMW Championship and head straight to the tour finale in Atlanta which has a purse of $40 million and a limited 30-man field.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s been years where I\u2019ve given it maybe more of my attention and years that I haven\u2019t, I guess I\u2019m just at a stage that I have other things that I prioritise,\u201d explained McIlroy of taking time and space in his schedule before heading back to the States.<\/p>\n

He expanded: \u201cThe PGA Tour is in a lot of flux at the minute with a lot of their schedule and structure and everything like that. So I think the change where it doesn\u2019t matter where you are in the top 30 going into the Tour Championship, it\u2019s like I just need to be in the top 30 going in there to have a chance to win a FedEx Cup, so why would I care about the first two? I sort of came to that decision last year, and I\u2019m just sort of doing the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

McIlroy has 30 careers wins on the PGA Tour and has won the Tour Championship three times, most recently in 2022. He is currently 11th on the FedEx Cup order of merit standings, so assured of a safe passage into the Tour Championship even in skipping the first two of the FedEx Cup playoffs.<\/p>\n

Of placing family life as his priority in the coming weeks, McIlroy said: \u201cPoppy\u2019s got another four weeks off school until she goes back, sort of middle to end of August, so just going to enjoy the summer holidays with her and Erica. That\u2019s what I\u2019m looking forward to the most.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen, obviously, I\u2019ll get back to playing and still in a decent position, I guess, in both title races. As long as I\u2019m in the top 30 going into the Tour Championship, and then I\u2019m in a decent spot still in the Race to Dubai, [then] try to play hard until the end of the season and then try to win one or both of those,\u201d said McIlroy, who successfully defended his Masters title in April and then finished tied-7th in the US PGA, tied-32nd in the US Open and tied-40th in The Open.<\/p>\n

While the Tour Championship will be McIlroy\u2019s only tournament left to play in the United States, he will return to Europe for the Amgen Irish Open at Doonbeg and the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth and also has wider international commitments to play in India and Australia as well as the DP World Tour finale in Dubai.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve really enjoyed my stretches of golf in Europe, really enjoyed that part of the year last year, and I\u2019m looking forward to that again for sure,\u201d said McIlroy.<\/p>\n

Shane Lowry is in a different situation, however. The Offaly man is currently 56th on the FedEx Cup standings \u2013 outside that magic top-30 who make it to the Tour Championship \u2013 and will play in the St Jude Classic with the aim of moving into the top-50 who progress on to the BMW.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, S\u00e9amus Power \u2013 who returned to competition following injury with a tied-11th finish in the Puntacana in Mexico over the weekend \u2013 is in the field for this week\u2019s 3M Open on the PGA Tour. Power is currently 115th on the FedEx Cup standings.<\/p>\n

P\u00e1draig Harrington and Darren Clarke \u2013 who both missed the cut in The Open \u2013 return to Gleneagles for this week\u2019s ISPS Handa Senior Open where Paul McGinley, breaking away from his television duties, is also in the field at a venue where he successfully captained Europe to victory over the USA in the Ryder Cup in 2014.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As important as the PGA Tour has been to Rory McIlroy in carving out his stellar career so…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":702428,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,1899,8693,2623,3027,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-702427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-open-championship","tag-pga-tour","tag-rory-mcilroy","tag-shane-lowry","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=702427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702427\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/702428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=702427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=702427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=702427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}