Rory McIlroy is not in next week’s RBC Heritage, leaving one of the PGA Tour’s Signature Events without one of its biggest names just days after The Masters ends on Sunday evening. The event is set for Harbour Town Golf Links on Hilton Head Island, with Scottie Scheffler headlining a field that includes 18 of the world’s top 20 players.
The absence is not exactly a surprise, but it is still notable because it is the first Signature Event of the season McIlroy is skipping. The RBC Heritage carries a $20m purse and a $3.6m first prize, and Hideki Matsuyama is also missing from the field.
McIlroy has played the tournament only twice in his career, in 2009 and 2020, and he chose to miss it again in 2023. That decision came under the PGA Tour’s old rule that allowed players to skip only one of the big-money Designated events, and it cost him $3m from his Player Impact Program payout that season.
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The Heritage remains one of the Tour’s most heavily loaded stops, and the field can still change after The Masters through the Aon Next 10 or by players moving into the world’s top 30. But McIlroy’s name is not there now, and the week at Harbour Town will go on with Scheffler at the top and a major-sized field around him.
