Rory McIlroy has spoken about how he would want his schedule to look if the PGA Tour did indeed introduce two tracks of tournaments in the future.
Brian Rolapp looks to be keen to split the PGA Tour in two, potentially as soon as the 2028 season.
The first track would see all of the biggest names only play in elevated events. Meanwhile, the purpose of track two would be to give players further down the food chain the opportunity to earn their way up to the game’s top table.
It appears that Rolapp is keen to have as many of his marquee names playing against each other as often as possible.
But there is a problem with that plan.
Rory McIlroy discusses his plans if the PGA Tour is split into two tiers
This year has shown how difficult it is to make every player happy. This week’s Memorial Tournament will mark the first time since the Arnold Palmer Invitational in early March that Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy will have played in the same signature event.
And it seems that McIlroy is not planning to sign up for every event if the PGA Tour does get split in two in the coming years.
“Yeah, I think with the track one events expanded to 120 players, I mean, I think I would back myself to finish in that top 100 or whatever it is if I play a limited schedule,” he said, speaking to the media ahead of the Memorial.
“So no, I’ve been doing this a long time. I’ve been on tour longer – more than half of my life at this point. So I’ll pick and choose my spots like I have been doing sort of the last 18 months to two years.
“Yeah, does it mean it makes it harder for myself to win the FedExCup or whatever the season-long title race is going to be called? Absolutely. But I’m okay with that because it brings balance to my life and lets me enjoy things outside of the game.”
Rory McIlroy looks set to present Brian Rolapp with a large problem
McIlroy’s comments highlight the issues Rolapp can expect to face.
The problem with the signature events currently is that there are no guarantees that the biggest names will all be involved. And realistically, there are only a handful of names who move the needle.
The PGA Tour is not going to find it easy to make it compulsory for players to play in every single track one event. McIlroy is not going to play a full schedule stateside before coming back and playing a number of events on the DP World Tour.
Meanwhile, someone like Scheffler is likely to push to have the chance to play in the CJ CUP Byron Nelson even if that becomes a track two event that clashes with a tournament on track one.
However, if they cannot get that buy-in from all of the top stars, it will become difficult to understand why the changes are set to be made in the first place.
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