PEBBLE BEACH — Rory McIlroy is cutting back on the number of PGA Tour events in which he’ll compete this year. He wouldn’t mind seeing the tour make more cuts of its own, including the number of tournaments it conducts. A less-is-more approach might be needed for a sport people want to "bash," as he put it, while he himself sees some signs of stress in a tour he has gone to great lengths to preserve. McIlroy makes his season debut on the U.S.-based circuit this week at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, one of the tour’s $20 million signature events. It’s a big week—or at least it’s supposed to be, with a limited field of 80 players that includes 45 of the top 50 in the world playing one of the most iconic courses on the planet. But questions seem to be dogging the game at the professional level, primarily its strength as an entertainment vehicle. Justin Thomas wrote a memo recently to his peers suggesting they loosen a button or two on their logo-decorated polo shirts and give paying customers and the home television audience more of a show. The golf “ecosystem” has grown with the addition of the rival LIV Golf League, YouTube entertainers and, most recently, the made-for-TV TGL simulator league that McIlroy and Tiger Woods launched earlier this month. Are all of these options, plus the increasingly frustrating problem of slow play, having a deleterious effect on the tour’s reach? McIlroy was asked on Tuesday if the PGA Tour was in some way diminished by these optional ways to consume golf, and he didn’t hesitate to agree they had. He went further saying that the 46 official events on the tour schedule “is definitely too many.” Ranked third in the world, McIlroy, 35, said definitively, “I think it [the tour] already has been diminished. “I think there's space for all of this,” he continued, pointing out that his TGL project, in which the PGA Tour is a partner, runs only for three months. “Yeah, I can see when the golf consumer might get a little fatigued of everything that's sort of available to them. So to scale it back a little bit and maybe have a little more scarcity in some of the stuff that we do, like the NFL, I think mightn't be a bad thing. “But look, I would much rather sit down and watch real golfers play real tournaments and that's just my opinion. That to me is more entertaining. But I understand that other people want something different and that's totally fine as well.” The PGA Tour already is implementing changes to enhance its profile, cutting the number of players earning exemptions off the FedEx Cup points list from 125 to 100 for the 2026 season and trimming field sizes next year to address pace of play and finishing each round in the allotted amount of daylight. While TGL seems to cater to younger audiences and puts emphasis on player interaction, McIlroy stopped short of advocating for Thomas’ plea to put forward a more entertaining demeanor in tour events. A four-time major winner and one of the game’s more popular stars, McIlroy and other top players might generate greater interest by playing more, but the Northern Irishman figures on cutting perhaps five events from his schedule this year in a bid to improve his chances of winning another major after making 26 combined official starts in ’24 on the PGA Tour and DP World Tour. A Masters victory would give him the career grand slam, and McIlroy’s last major win came in the 2014 PGA Championship. “I just played way too much last year,” he said. “I want to be home more. I want to be a little more rested and fresh for bigger events.” As for stepping out of his comfort zone during competition, that’s a tough ask. He gets it, but that’s not how he’s wired. “Look, it's a balance. When we're growing up dreaming of professional golfers and trying to get the best out of ourselves, the last thing on our mind is being an entertainer,” McIlroy said. “We're competitive people at the end of the day; we want to play against the best players in the world and we want to try to come out on top. I think that in itself should be entertaining to people, but I think in this day and age, it's become a hobby to bash golf and where golf is and is it entertaining, is it not entertaining. “I came out on the wrong side of it last year, but I would say the last round of the U.S. Open was pretty entertaining,” he added of his heartbreaking loss to Bryson DeChambeau at Pinehurst, “and that was pure competitive golf. I think the more we can get to scenarios like that, the better.”

As for stepping out of his comfort zone during competition, that’s a tough ask. He gets it, but that’s not how he’s wired. PEBBLE BEACH — Rory McIlroy is cutting back on the number of PGA Tour events in which he’ll compete this year. He wouldn’t mind seeing the tour make more cuts of its […]

As for stepping out of his comfort zone during competition, that’s a tough ask. He gets it, but that’s not how he’s wired.

PEBBLE BEACH — Rory McIlroy is cutting back on the number of PGA Tour events in which he’ll compete this year. He wouldn’t mind seeing the tour make more cuts of its own, including the number of tournaments it conducts. A less-is-more approach might be needed for a sport people want to “bash,” as he put it, while he himself sees some signs of stress in a tour he has gone to great lengths to preserve.

Are all of these options, plus the increasingly frustrating problem of slow play, having a deleterious effect on the tour’s reach? McIlroy was asked on Tuesday if the PGA Tour was in some way diminished by these optional ways to consume golf, and he didn’t hesitate to agree they had. He went further saying that the 46 official events on the tour schedule “is definitely too many.”

While TGL seems to cater to younger audiences and puts emphasis on player interaction, McIlroy stopped short of advocating for Thomas’ plea to put forward a more entertaining demeanor in tour events. A four-time major winner and one of the game’s more popular stars, McIlroy and other top players might generate greater interest by playing more, but the Northern Irishman figures on cutting perhaps five events from his schedule this year in a bid to improve his chances of winning another major after making 26 combined official starts in ’24 on the PGA Tour and DP World Tour. A Masters victory would give him the career grand slam, and McIlroy’s last major win came in the 2014 PGA Championship.

“But look, I would much rather sit down and watch real golfers play real tournaments and that’s just my opinion. That to me is more entertaining. But I understand that other people want something different and that’s totally fine as well.”

“I just played way too much last year,” he said. “I want to be home more. I want to be a little more rested and fresh for bigger events.”

“Look, it’s a balance. When we’re growing up dreaming of professional golfers and trying to get the best out of ourselves, the last thing on our mind is being an entertainer,” McIlroy said. “We’re competitive people at the end of the day; we want to play against the best players in the world and we want to try to come out on top. I think that in itself should be entertaining to people, but I think in this day and age, it’s become a hobby to bash golf and where golf is and is it entertaining, is it not entertaining.

The PGA Tour already is implementing changes to enhance its profile, cutting the number of players earning exemptions off the FedEx Cup points list from 125 to 100 for the 2026 season and trimming field sizes next year to address pace of play and finishing each round in the allotted amount of daylight.

“I think there’s space for all of this,” he continued, pointing out that his TGL project, in which the PGA Tour is a partner, runs only for three months. “Yeah, I can see when the golf consumer might get a little fatigued of everything that’s sort of available to them. So to scale it back a little bit and maybe have a little more scarcity in some of the stuff that we do, like the NFL, I think mightn’t be a bad thing.

But questions seem to be dogging the game at the professional level, primarily its strength as an entertainment vehicle. Justin Thomas wrote a memo recently to his peers suggesting they loosen a button or two on their logo-decorated polo shirts and give paying customers and the home television audience more of a show. The golf “ecosystem” has grown with the addition of the rival LIV Golf League, YouTube entertainers and, most recently, the made-for-TV TGL simulator league that McIlroy and Tiger Woods launched earlier this month.

McIlroy makes his season debut on the U.S.-based circuit this week at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, one of the tour’s million signature events. It’s a big week—or at least it’s supposed to be, with a limited field of 80 players that includes 45 of the top 50 in the world playing one of the most iconic courses on the planet.

Ranked third in the world, McIlroy, 35, said definitively, “I think it [the tour] already has been diminished.

“I came out on the wrong side of it last year, but I would say the last round of the U.S. Open was pretty entertaining,” he added of his heartbreaking loss to Bryson DeChambeau at Pinehurst, “and that was pure competitive golf. I think the more we can get to scenarios like that, the better.”

Rory McIlroy is chopping events from his own schedule and would like PGA Tour to do the same

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