PGA Tour boss confirms HEAVY Rory McIlroy fine: "Beauty of PGA Tour model"

PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan has stuck by his guns and come down hard on Rory McIlroy following his second withdrawal from a designated event at the RBC Heritage last month. 

Per Dan Rapaport of Barstool Sports ahead of this week's Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow, PGA Tour boss Monahan confirmed McIlroy will definitely not receive the final $3m of his Player Impact Program (PIP) bonus following his latest withdrawal. 

The PGA Tour created the PIP in 2021. It was designed to give out whopping cash bonuses to the top 10 players who generate the most positive interest in the circuit. Last year, the prize fund doubled to $100m, with as many as 20 players receiving a lump sum.

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PGA Tour players are permitted to skip just one designated event on the schedule if they want to pick up their full PIP bonus money. 

McIlroy, however, bypassed the first elevated event of the season at the Tournament of Champions in Hawaii in the first week of January, and then skipped the RBC Heritage the week after The Masters.

The World No.3 this week cited mental health issues as the reason for that particular WD. 

McIlroy had won $12m for finishing second to Tiger Woods in the 2022 PIP, but he now loses $3m of that total. 

According to Monahan, docking players money lies in the "beauty of the PGA Tour model".

He also admitted McIlroy is not really being fined as such as "it's not money he already had."

Jay Monahan confirmed Rory McIlroy won't receive the final $3 million of his PIP bonus for his RBC Heritage WD. Did say that's the beauty of the PGA Tour model—that guys can choose to skip an event if they want to. And he's not really being "fined." It's not money he already had.

— Dan Rapaport (@Daniel_Rapaport) May 3, 2023

Rapaport tweeted: 

McIlroy is making his return to competitive action at the Wells Fargo Championship this week.

He's won at Quail Hollow three times previously in 2010, 2015 and 2021. 

McIlroy starts a warm 8/1 tournament favourite, narrowly ahead of Patrick Cantlay (12/1), who has acquired the services of Tiger Woods' long-time caddie Joe LaCava on a permanent basis. 

Cantlay admitted earlier today that he did *not* speak to Woods prior to hiring LaCava. 

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