After multiple victories in 2025, including The Masters to complete the Career Grand Slam, Rory McIlroy has safely qualified for yet another FedEx Cup Playoffs.
However, prior to the first tournament, the FedEx St. Jude Championship, the 29-time PGA Tour winner has opted not to feature in the event, with the reasoning behind it rather clear.
McIlroy during the 2024 Fed St. Jude Championship, where he finished in T68 out of 70 players
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Firstly, the 36-year-old sits second in the FedEx Cup standings, some 850 points ahead of Sepp Straka in third. This means that McIlroy is mathematically in the FedEx Cup’s second Playoff event, the BMW Championship.
In fact, such is his points tally in the standings, he has all-but qualified for the season-ending Tour Championship at East Lake, an event that has seen a format change in the last few months.
Originally, the Tour Championship had a strokes-based starting system, whereby your position in the FedEx Cup determined your starting position and shot total for the Tour Championship.
In May, that was eliminated and replaced by a standard 72-hole stroke-play event, with all players starting the tournament at level-par. From there, the best performer over the course of four rounds at the Tour Championship will win the FedEx Cup.
Because of this, your final position in the FedEx Cup standings becomes irrelevant following the BMW Championship, which takes place the week before.
McIlroy claimed $4 million for finishing second in the FedEx Cup standings, as well as $6 million from the Comcast Business Top 10
(Image credit: Getty Images)
One other key reason stems from an interview McIlroy gave to The Telegraph in November 2024, whereby he revealed that he would be cutting back his playing schedule in 2025.
Speaking at the time, the five-time Major winner stated: “I’ll probably not play the first play-off event in Memphis. I mean, I finished basically dead last there this year (tied for 68 in a 70-man field), and only moved down one spot in the play-off standings.”
Adding on to his form at TPC Southwind, McIlroy finished second-last in 2024, third in 2023 and missed the cut in 2022, when the field contained 125 players.
What’s more, McIlroy listed the Cognizant Classic, Valero Texas Open and RBC Heritage…
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