Rory McIlroy is not playing in the 2022 Cadence Bank Houston Open, here's why

Rory McIlroy is the world's top-ranked golfer right now, but it doesn't appear that he's set to appear in the next upcoming tournament.

The Cadence Bank Houston Open is a tournament that is played every year in November in Texas. It's one of the largest events on the PGA Tour every year, and it's an excellent opportunity for golfers to improve their standing and take home some prize money.

However, McIlroy will reportedly not be participating. This is not entirely by choice, though.

According to Golf Week, the star golfer just narrowly missed the cut. He took some time off and the rust showed, resulting in a poor finish at the 150th Open Championship. He finished low enough to be left out of the field for the Cadence Bank Houston Open.

It's unfortunate for the golfer, but it does mean he won't potentially jeopardize his number one standing with a poor showing.

However, it's a missed opportunity to continue to get better and improve his lead over Scottie Scheffler, Cameron Smith, Patrick Cantlay and other would-be successors.

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If not Rory McIlroy, then who will be competing in the 2022 Cadence Bank Houston Open?

There are still plenty of great golfers in action even if the World Number One is not a part of it. Here are some of the top 50 that will be playing and their rankings:

• 2. Scottie Scheffler
• 12. Sam Burns
• 14. Tony Finau
• 19. Hideki Matsuyama
• 27. Sepp Straka
• 34. Aaron Wise
• 49. Alex Noren
• 50. Harris English

Prior to the event, according to Golf Week, Scheffler had an outside chance of unseating McIlroy as the world's number one ranked golfer.

That's exactly what McIlroy did to him a few weeks ago after Scheffler stayed atop the leaderboard for 30 weeks.

The CJ Cup - Final Round

At the World Wide Technology Championship in Mayakoba, Scheffler had a shot at taking back his throne. However, he finished two shots shy of returning to golf glory, so he'll have to try again at a later date.

As for the current Number One, it appears his next appearance will be a little more fun. He's slated to participate in Capital One's The Match, which is almost a celebrity golf event.

It's a golf tournament that usually features a couple of golfers or athletes facing off in a head-to-head tournament.

In the past, it has seen Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson face off against each other as well as Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka doing the same.

The Match recently featured NFL stars Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes against Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers. It will return to being a competition between actual professional golfers this year, though.

The next iteration will see McIlroy compete alongside Woods against Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth. It will be held on December 10, as Woods announced on social media.

McIlroy will likely continue competing in events after that, which will be the RSM Classic later this month or the Hero World Challenge in early December.