Ryan Lavner admits he’s actually ‘surprised’ by decision which Scottie Scheffler has made recently

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While Scottie Scheffler will return to action this week at the FedEx St. Jude Championship, Rory McIlroy has decided to sit out the first playoff event.

The FedEx Cup playoffs are here, with the eyes of many players set on getting to East Lake and the Tour Championship. Of course, the finale will look a little different this year, with starting strokes no longer a factor.

That obviously means that the key goal for most players in the first two events is making sure that they put themselves in the top 30. Ultimately, the player in 30th place will start the Tour Championship on exactly the same score as the player who tops the standings.

With that, Rory McIlroy has opted to skip the FedEx St. Jude Championship this week. The Northern Irishman is second in the standings behind Scottie Scheffler, so can probably also skip the BMW Championship if he wishes to.

Rory McIlroy defended after deciding to skip the FedEx St. Jude Championship

Obviously, it is not the best look for the PGA Tour. The FedEx Cup playoffs are the highlight of their season, so having their biggest name skip an event is far from ideal.

But speaking on the Golf Channel Podcast, Ryan Lavner insisted that McIlroy has every right to sit this week out having played so well throughout the season. He also suggested that he expected more players to follow his lead.

“I don’t think that you can make it mandatory. I don’t think that you can make it compulsory to have the attendance. And here’s why, they’ve already tried that as it relates to the elevated events. It was two years ago, all of a sudden Rory missed – even though he was going to miss out on $3-4 million – it did not deter him either way,” he said.

“As it relates to Rory in particular, this is the fourth marquee event that he has missed, if you’re looking at The Sentry, the Heritage, he also missed The Memorial and now the first event of the FedEx Cup playoffs. He’s more than able to do that.

“I sort of view what he’s doing in Memphis sort of the equivalent of a first round bye. And if you play well enough throughout the regular season that you can seemingly afford to miss a week and bank on your talent and your skills and a short field going up against him, 50 players at the BMW and 30 for the Tour Championship, if you still think that you can squeeze the most out of those weeks and finish higher up on the FedEx Cup points, more power to you.

“I’m honestly surprised that most players have not followed Rory McIlroy’s suit. Not the other way around where I’m bashing him, because I don’t understand that logic at all.”

Scottie Scheffler has sprung a surprise ahead of the first FedEx Cup playoff event

Thankfully for the PGA Tour, Scottie Scheffler is among the players who will be playing this week. The world number one is making his first appearance since sealing his fourth major title at Royal Portrush last month.

It will be fascinating to see how Scheffler performs after the high of winning the Claret Jug.

Lavner admitted that he is surprised that the 29-year-old is not putting his feet up this week and returning at the second playoff event.

“If anyone should have missed, it probably was Scottie Scheffler. This is a player who has been going through it over the past couple of months: the majors, the signature events, they’re all condensed in a very small period of time. He just won The Open Championship savouring and relishing it most likely for more than two minutes like he’s done in the past,” he added.

“But now you have three weeks in the playoffs. They’re going to be very hot, very sultry, very humid, very taxing on the body. He’s in a position, Scottie is, at number one where even if he finishes dead last this week, he still cannot be overtaken by number three Sepp Straka.

“I’m a little surprised Scottie’s not doing it.”

The two players appear to have different approaches for how they may boost their chances of peaking at the Tour Championship.

Rich Beem suggested that McIlroy was smart for missing Memphis as the playoff events will take so much out of those who play in all three.

But perhaps Scheffler feels that he is more likely to triumph at East Lake if he has those reps under his belt at TPC Southwind and Caves Valley.

Hopefully, it all leads to a showdown between the two best players on the planet. It is hard to imagine the PGA Tour having any complaints then.