![\"Rory](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/rory-mcilroy-has-won-two-masters-on-the-trot-an-achievement-only-matched-by-three-other-people.jpg\")
<\/p>\nRory McIlroy has decided to sit out this week’s RBC Heritage at Harbour Town Golf Links, opting for some well-deserved downtime after his remarkable back-to-back Masters triumph.<\/p>\n
The Northern Irishman became just the fourth golfer in history to win consecutive green jackets on Sunday, and it’s fair to say he’s earned a breather.<\/p>\n
It was an exhausting weekend at Augusta National, with McIlroy battling to protect his lead in what turned into a nail-biting finish.<\/p>\n
The 36-year-old has historically been selective about playing Harbour Town, having only competed there a handful of times throughout his career.<\/p>\n
Rory McIlroy has won two Masters on the trot – an achievement only matched by three other people<\/p>\n
| <\/p>\n
REUTERS<\/p>\n
Back in 2023, skipping this very same tournament proved rather costly for McIlroy.<\/p>\n
After missing the cut at that year’s Masters, he pulled out of the Heritage to regroup following a difficult spell in Georgia.<\/p>\n
“I had my reasons to not play Hilton Head and I’ve expressed those to [PGA Tour Commissioner] Jay [Monahan],” McIlroy explained at the time.<\/p>\n
“It was an easy decision, but I felt like if that fine or whatever is to happen was worth that for me in order to get some things in place.”<\/p>\n
The decision hit his wallet hard though \u2013 a whopping \u00a32.2million fine under the PGA Tour’s rules at the time, which required top-20 Player Impact Program players to compete in all but one of 17 signature events.<\/p>\n
![\"Rory](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/rory-mcilroy-often-withdraws-from-the-rbc-heritage-the-tournament-immediately-after-the-masters.jpg\")
Rory McIlroy often withdraws from the RBC Heritage – the tournament immediately after The Masters<\/p>\n
| <\/p>\n
REUTERS<\/p>\n
Things changed in 2024 when the PGA Tour overhauled its regulations to give elite players much more freedom with their schedules.<\/p>\n
Rather than forcing the top names to show up, officials took a different approach \u2013 they simply made the prize money too good to turn down.<\/p>\n
The signature events now boast bumper purses designed to attract the biggest stars without the threat of penalties hanging over them.<\/p>\n
Even with these relaxed rules, McIlroy still chose to skip the Heritage last year after finally claiming his first green jacket and completing the career Grand Slam.<\/p>\n
He headed straight home to Northern Ireland to celebrate with family and friends.<\/p>\n
![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776259634_903_image.jpg\")
McIlroy’s victory at Augusta saw him finish on 12 under par, holding off Scottie Scheffler by just a single stroke.<\/p>\n
It could have gone to a dramatic play-off, but Scheffler missed a crucial birdie putt on the 17th that would have levelled things up \u2013 much like the tense showdown McIlroy faced against Justin Rose twelve months earlier.<\/p>\n
![\"Rory](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776259634_329_rory-mcilroy.jpg\")
Rory McIlroy won The Masters in 2025 as well as 2026<\/p>\n
| REUTERS<\/p>\n
The Holywood native led from start to finish, though his comfortable six-shot cushion after Friday melted to just one heading into Sunday’s final round.<\/p>\n
“I can’t believe I waited 17 years to get one green jacket and I get two in a row,” he said afterwards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy has decided to sit out this week’s RBC Heritage at Harbour Town Golf Links, opting for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":585756,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,6082,1500,1079,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-585755","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-rory-mcilroy","10":"tag-sgg","11":"tag-sport","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=585755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585755\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/585756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=585755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=585755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=585755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}