Rory McIlroy won’t be playing in this week’s RBC Heritage PGA Tour tournament in South Carolina. That might not seem like a big deal, but because he already missed a previous designated event this year, McIlroy will miss out on a good chunk of his Player Impact Program money.
According to Sports Illustrated, McIlroy is losing out on a quarter of his PIP payout, which comes out to $3 million.
The Player Impact Program was the PGA Tour’s response to LIV Golf paying massive amounts of money to entice golfers to play there. One of the PGA Tour’s requirements was that golfers must play in a number of events in addition to the four majors and the Players Championship.
A list of 12 designated events is on the 2023 schedule, and golfers can only opt out of one. This is to ensure fans and viewers see most of the best golfers on the PGA Tour. As a result, purse money for these events jumped considerably. For instance, the RBC Heritage jumped from a purse of $8.3 million to $20 million.
McIlroy already withdrew from the Sentry Tournament of Champions in January, using up his one opt-out. There are considerations where golfers could keep all their bonus money if they had to miss multiple events due to injury or personal reasons, but that reportedly doesn’t seem to be the case with McIlroy.
SI explained that McIlroy’s $12 million came from finishing second in PIP in 2022. Tiger Woods was top of the list, which factors in on and off-course metrics and is in line to receive $15 million of the $100 million pool.
Golfers received 75% of their PIP money in January and would get the rest at the end of the year once they meet the requirements. On top of playing in 11 of 12 designated events, golfers must add three other events, with one such event being “in collaboration with the Tour” as well as a “Tour-related function” that gives back to fans.
In his bid to complete the career “Grand Slam,” McIlroy missed the cut at last week’s Masters tournament. McIlroy finished even par in his first round, but a +5 in the second sealed his fate.
