Much of the PGA Tour is frowning this week after Rory McIlroy decided to skip the first leg of the FedEx Cup playoffs at the St. Jude Championship, but one player director on the tour board has not sounded an alarm about changes to protocols.
This was not an unexpected move from McIlroy ahead of the tournament in Memphis, Tennessee. He sat down to reduce the overall workload for the season and said last year he had planned to follow the previous script as playoff rankings are likely not to be significantly affected.
“I think it’s too difficult to play everyone,” Webb Simpson said in an interview with Golf Week. “We’re still a sport that you can play when you want to.”
Simpson is one of several players who have participated in the FedEx Cup playoff events in the past and handed over for more rest. Tiger Woods, Jim Furik, Shane Raleigh and Tommy Fleetwood are among those who don’t have penalties.
Simpson said he withdraws from the BMW Championship after finishing third in the FedEx Cup rankings in 2020 and then focuses on the Tour Championship.
“I knew I couldn’t fall in multiple places, so I thought losing one stroke in East Lake was toast so it was worth a week’s rest,” Simpson said. “I don’t know why Rory is, but I fully understand that. It’s difficult to fix it.”
Each leg of the FedEx Cup offers four times the points of the regular season event, but McIlroy has a considerable lead in the rest of the field behind Scottie Scheffler and is unable to knock past the top 50 and top 30 thresholds required for other events.
Peter Marnaty, player director for the PGA Tour Policy Board, said this week he was.I’m very worried“One of the world’s top players has chosen to skip one of the three playoff legs and stated that there is a possibility of a change in the rules being “in the works” before deciding not to go into further detail.
McIlroy’s won The Times Times on this year’s tour, giving him 29 for his career. His victory at Augusta National in April was his fifth major, bringing him to the six other golfers behind the sport’s greatest legend in history in this category.
