DUBLIN, Ohio – When the field list for this week’s Memorial was released last Friday, there was one name that was conspicuous in its absence: Rory McIlroy.
It’s not an outrageous surprise for a player to skip one of the circuit’s $20 million signature events considering how condensed the schedule has become around the majors. McIlroy already has missed two signature events, The Sentry to start the year and the RBC Heritage, and world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler didn’t play the Truist Championship earlier this month.
Still, there was at least one person who was surprised that the Masters champion skipped a trip to Muirfield Village.
“I didn’t have a conversation with him, no,” said Jack Nicklaus, who was then asked if McIlroy’s absence surprised him: “A little bit.”
Since winning the Masters and completing the career Grand Slam, McIlroy has played the Zurich Classic, which the Northern Irishman won last year teamed with Shane Lowry, and the PGA Championship. He also plans to play next week’s RBC Canadian Open, which he won in 2022. If McIlroy played the Memorial, it would have been back-to-back weeks before the U.S. Open and likely four in a row with the Travelers Championship, another signature event which he will likely play, the week after the national championship.
“It surprised me. But, you know, guys have got schedules and got things they do,” Nicklaus said. “I haven’t talked to him for him to tell me why or why not. It’s just his call. I made a lot of calls that I had to make when I played to play or not play, and sometimes it wasn’t as popular as people thought it was. But sometimes you have to make those calls.
“I don’t hold anything against Rory for that. He did what he likes to play. I know he likes to play so many in a row. He likes to play the week before a U.S. Open. And that’s what he’s doing.”
Nicklaus picked McIlroy to win the Masters and spent a lunch with the world No. 2 before the year’s first major going over his gameplan for Augusta National.
“We went through it shot for shot. And he got done with the round, and I didn’t open my mouth. And I said, ‘Well, I wouldn’t change a thing,’” Nicklaus said last month at the Masters.
