Rory McIlroy could lose $3 million after WD from 2023 RBC Heritage

Thanks to Rory McIlroy's decision to withdraw from the RBC Heritage this year, the golfer will lose $3 million of his Player Impact Program payout this year. The star golfer missed the cut at the Masters after posting a +5 and decided to take some time off. It will cost him financially, though.

This is the second time the golfer has skipped out on a designated event this season. He has a $12 million PIP payout, and he's now losing a fourth of that total for doing this twice.

The PIP is a result of the changes made to the PGA Tour. With LIV Golf changing things financially, the Tour decided to reward its top players financially. McIlroy's $12 million fund is second-highest to Tiger Woods' $15 million.

In order to receive the full bonus, the Tour designated events for players to participate in. They were allowed to skip one, but McIlroy has now skipped two.

Players, McIlroy included, earned 25% of their bonus at the beginning of the year and are set to receive the rest when they fulfill the requirements, but McIlroy's total will now be lower.

Next year, this may not be an issue. The total PIP pool is being cut from $100 million to $50 million, and it will not be tied to designated events, which would change how McIlroy is paid this year.

This year, the Sentry Tournament of Champions, the WM Phoenix Open, the Genesis Invitational, the Arnold Palmer Invitational, the WGC-Match Play, the RBC Heritage, the Wells Fargo Championship, the Memorial Tournament, and the Travelers Championship are the designated events.

---

Golfers like Rory McIlroy are not fans of the PIP setup

Rory McIlroy is on record as not being the biggest fan of the PIP setup. He said a while back via Mirror that most golfers weren't pleased:

“I don’t know if Jay has communicated this to you but the mandatory [clause] – there’s been a lot of blowback on that by the guys in the room. They were sort of blindsided by it. That’s sort of the feeling. We knew there were going to be four new elevated events but we didn’t know they were going to be mandatory.”

Rory McIlroy isn't a fan of the PIP setup

Nevertheless, it'll now cost him $3 million, but things are going to be different in the future. Jordan Spieth echoed his sentiments:

"I think I played way too much golf into this. I came in mentally fatigued, and you overwork this week every year. I played way too much golf in the last… I mean, this is eight out of 10 weeks. So I need to change my schedule up going forward to be a little sharper this week. I think that has a lot to do with it."

Coming off of the Masters, even if a player didn't do all that well, is exhausting. It's the biggest tournament in the sport, and following it up with a mandatory event is a tough spot for the PGA Tour to put guys like Jon Rahm, Rory McIlroy, and Jordan Spieth in.