Rory McIlroy has passed up on £13.7 million after snubbing Donald Trump in his latest announcement. Donald Trump was looking forward to watching McIlroy play at Trump National Doral during the Cadillac Championship, but the back-to-back Masters champion is sitting out the PGA Tour signature event.
McIlroy's Withdrawal Pattern
Rory McIlroy has now withdrawn from five PGA Tour signature events since the start of last year after skipping this week's Cadillac Championship. Donald Trump spoke after his second Masters win about looking forward to watching the Green Jacket holder play at Trump National Doral. McIlroy, 36, will not be in Miami, though, foregoing a chance to play for the £2.7 million top prize. He has now missed consecutive signature events after skipping The Heritage.
That tournament took place just a week after his latest win at Augusta National. McIlroy also missed it last year after completing the career Grand Slam. The Heritage winner, Matt Fitzpatrick, took home £2.7 million, bringing the total that his Ryder Cup teammate has passed up in April alone to £5.4 million. McIlroy also missed the Memorial Tournament last year for the first time since 2017.
Financial Impact
Winning the event Jack Nicklaus hosts earns players £2.9 million, with Scottie Scheffler topping the leaderboard the last two years - McIlroy has never. The other signature event he missed last year was the Sentry, in what proved to be its last edition before being cancelled in 2025. Hideki Matsuyama won the £2.7 million prize that McIlroy forewent. That takes the total of potential signature-event winnings he decided against competing for to £13.7 million.
Reactions from the Tour
His absences have not gone unnoticed on the Tour either. Michael Kim said on Friday: "I hope to get to a point where I decide to skip a signature event even when healthy." That post on X seemed to reference the Masters champion missing another one, though Kim later said it was OK in another post. He made the follow-up in response to GOLF.com writer Sean Zak describing McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler missing three signature events between the Masters and PGA Championship as "one problem the PGA Tour needs to solve."
Kim said on the social media platform: "It's OK. Scottie is just skipping Truist to play the two DFW events." Kim appears to cite Scheffler's participation in two Dallas-Fort Worth events as the reason for missing the upcoming Truist Championship, which McIlroy is due to play.
McIlroy's Philosophy on Tournaments
McIlroy skipping tournaments should be no surprise, though. He said in January: "I think I need to show up at tournaments with enthusiasm every single time, so, playing in the places that I want to play, playing the tournaments I want to play, not feeling like I'm at a tournament because I'm obligated or have to be there, but because I want to be there." Then, at the Masters, he explained his extended break before the major by saying: "I honestly just don't like the three tournaments leading up to this event. I'd rather come up here. Like I did a couple of day trips like that where I felt it was a better use of my time than going to Houston or San Antonio."
