Rory McIlroy withdraws from PGA Tour’s RBC Heritage event

Rory McIlroy has withdrawn from this week’s PGA Tour event, the RBC Heritage at Hilton Head in South Carolina.

The Northern Irishman, 33, shot rounds of 72 and 77 to miss the cut at last week’s Masters by two shots – his ninth attempt to complete the career Grand Slam at Augusta National.

The RBC Heritage is among the PGA Tour’s designated events.

Players ranked in the top 20 of the circuit’s Player Impact Program (PIP) – created to reward players for boosting engagement and publicity in the PGA Tour – are allowed to skip only one designated event per season.

McIlroy has already sat out the season-opening Sentry Tournament of Champions in January.

This second absence could potentially cost him bonus money from the PIP, which is distributed at the end of the PGA Tour season and which earned McIlroy £7.5m in 2022.

Former world number one Jason Day, who was on the fringes of contention at Augusta, has also pulled out of this week’s event.

McIlroy won the last of his four majors in 2014 but claiming the Masters would have made him only the sixth player to complete the men’s career Grand Slam.

He went into the tournament with four wins on the PGA Tour in the past 10 months and with many suggesting this would finally be the year he achieved golfing immortality.

McIlroy declined to do any post-round interviews after failing to make the halfway cut. – bbc.com