Rory McIlroy is receiving all sorts of criticism from golf fans right now.
McIlroy chose not to play in the Memorial Tournament this week – a signature event.
And golf fans reacted angrily to McIlroy’s decision to skip the Memorial Tournament.
After all, he was one of the lead players who championed the idea of having eight signature events every year, so that the best players on the PGA Tour could play alongside one another.
The Northern Irishman has experienced a really difficult past few weeks or so.
The problems really began for McIlroy when his driver was deemed to be non-conforming at the PGA Championship.
He went on to play poorly at Quail Hollow, and refused to speak to the media after any of his rounds.
The 35-year-old received plenty of flak for that, and now he’s being criticised yet again.
Smylie Kaufman on Rory McIlroy’s decision to play DP World Tour event
McIlroy has committed to play in the DP World India Championship at Delhi Golf Club in October.
It has been suggested by Smylie Kaufman that there is a very simple reason why McIlroy will be heading out to India in October.
Firstly, Kaufman lifted the lid on why McIlroy is getting criticised for skipping the Memorial Tournament this week.
He said, “The criticism with Rory is understood. They all agreed, let’s all commit to play together at signature events, eight times a year, and there’s going to be a penalty if you don’t play in those events. They were saying to the PGA Tour executives, ‘you can all go and charge sponsors more for these events because we will be there playing’. So Rory was a part of this, he was one of the many top players who were advocating towards playing against the best players in the world more. That’s where this scrutiny on Rory is coming from.“
Then Kaufman lifted the lid on McIlroy’s decision to play in India later this year.
“He’s going to play more globally, we’ve seen him do it. I’m a huge advocate for him to go and do that. The only thing I want to mention here is, people don’t want to admit it, that boy is getting paid. He’s probably going to be making more money than some of the purses he’s going to.
“I’m totally fine with him going and doing these things, and if it takes away from him playing PGA Tour events, I am not overly against it. Rory McIlroy has always been supportive of the DP World Tour. I think he’s just realised his priorities and being able to manage a global schedule.”
The purse for the India Championship is just $4 million, so McIlroy will undoubtedly be getting paid a nice chunk of change just for turning up.
Has McIlroy lost his motivation?
McIlroy has the talent to turn up at events and win them, if he’s on top of his game.
He will most likely win another couple of majors purely because of his natural ability alone. However, it does seem like his motivation has waned since he fulfilled his lifelong dream of completing the career Grand Slam.
McIlroy is good enough to go on and win double-digit majors, but does he have the drive needed to do that?
The jury is certainly out on him in that regard.
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