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It will become one of the most expensive waterslides in modern golf history – officially.
On Wednesday at the Wells Fargo Championships, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan confirmed that Rory McIlroy will in fact be penalized a whopping $3 million for WD at RBC Heritage in April, confirming weeks of reports that the four-time major winner stood to lose millions for violating Requirements to run the PGA Tour.
The situation goes back to McIlroy’s surprise, WD of Hilton Head on the morning of the first round of the championship – a decision McIlroy later refused to divulge with the media, saying only that it was “private matter. At the time of his participation in the WD program, a few eagle followers pointed out that McIlroy found himself in violation of the playing requirements recently set by the PGA Tour for designated events. Under PGA Tour rules, players were allowed to miss only one particular event in the program’s first season, and would be penalized. Those who missed more than one event with 25% of their winnings in the Player Impact program.
McIlroy, who missed the Sentry Tournament of Champions in order to compete in the Dubai Desert Classic on the DP World Tour (an event he later won), had already accumulated his first scheduled event absence by the time Hilton Head started. By losing RBC Heritage, he would have collected a second absence, thus imposing a penalty of up to 25% of his PIP winnings, or a total of $3 million.
At the time, it appeared that the final decision on McIlroy’s penalty was left to Monahan, who as leader on the tour had discretion in the event of penalties. Some wondered if Monahan might look the other way on WD and allow McIlroy to keep the $3 million, given Rory’s role in upholding and implementing tour policies that helped cement its standing against LIV Golf. But at the Wells Fargo Hotel, Monahan confirmed that McIlroy would not receive such something for something. Instead, he will receive the penalty as written in the round, which is up to $3 million in bonus money.
Monahan said in a session with reporters from multiple outlets. “When you are in a situation like this, you just have to look at the criteria. Regarding any such situation, we will look at a situation and make a decision.”
It should be noted that McIlroy is not technically fined $3 million, but “failed to make” his full $12 million bonus. When writing a tour policy, PIP rewards are earned in two installments. The first installment, which amounts to 75% of the bonus earned, is paid in the first week of the calendar year in the Sentry Tournament of Champions; The second installment, which is the remaining 25%, is payable upon completion of the PGA Tour season and is contingent on meeting attendance requirements. It may seem like a matter of semantics, but it is important to the tour.
“We’ve tried to create the right standards and structure to make sure players want to show up,” Monahan said. “You look at the consequences in terms of FedEx Cup points, field sizes, the concentration of the top players and their ability to compete against each other. So the confidence is high.”
Yet McIlroy is, in some ways, a victim of his own success. Had he not been a popular player in 2022, he may not have received the $12 million PIP fund initially, leaving him with a smaller final penalty. However, it is unlikely that we will hear Rory complain about the missing money. On the one hand, he is one of the richest players on tour (with a net worth in the hundreds of millions). On the other hand, he was one of the game’s most staunch proponents of gameplay requirements (or at least played suggestions) based on the importance of showing the best golfers compete frequently.
“When I join the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, I expect to see Tom Brady throw a football. When I race in Formula 1, I expect to see Lewis Hamilton in a car.” “Sometimes what happens on the PGA Tour is that we all act independently and kind of have our own schedules, and that means we don’t get together very often.”
It’s a staggering financial loss for one of the tour’s best players, or a cautionary tale about the fickle nature of playing requirements, or something else entirely, depending on your point of view. But there is no doubt who Rory McIlroy is Hopes IS: The most expensive WD ever.