Why is Rory McIlroy not in 2025 St. Jude Championship field as FedEx Cup Playoffs begin in Memphis?
Although the Fedex Cup qualifiers start next week in Memphis, in Tennessee, Golfer No. 2 in the world will not be part of the field. The name of Rory McILroy was absent Friday from the list of 69 men of competitors for the St. Jude 2025 championship published by the PGA Tour.
Seventy men qualify for the first round of the playoffs, but McILroy is classified so high that he can easily slip into the second round of the eliminatory series without competition. Although it leaves a potentially important day of pay on the table – the winner of TPC Southwind will bring back $ 3.6 million at home – he can resume the following week, joining the rest of the first 50 for the BMW championship only an hour outside Washington, DC, DC DC
McILroy will certainly be surely qualified for the Tour championship as one of the best remaining players after the BMW championship. The Northern Irishman and pregnant Masters Champion is a triple winner of the tour championship, capturing each of these crowns in the last nine seasons (2016, 2019, 2022).
While McILroy succeeds immensely at the East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, host of the Tour championship, he generally had trouble in the St. Jude championship. He never won in Memphis and finished second in 2024. The BMW Championship changed the sites each year that he finished fourth the last time he was held at the Valley Golf Club cellars in 2021.
The decision not to play the St. Jude championship is part of a first season promise that McILroy made to start fewer events and reduce his general schedule. Addressing The Telegraph last November, he specifically underlined the event next week as a skipable, noting that he had finished the T68 a year ago and made only one place in the ranking of the Fedex Cup.
