Rory McIlroy will not play the RBC Heritage at Harbour Town this weekend, skipping a Signature Event for the second time after a decision that was confirmed last week before his win at Augusta National. The absence keeps one of golf’s biggest names out of a field that still includes most of the game’s top players.
McIlroy was already on record about how he feels about Harbour Town. After finishing T41 there in 2020, he said the course does not suit his game and that other courses on Tour probably fit him better, adding that his idea of decompression is not seeing golf clubs for a week. He also said the week after the Masters is always a tough one.
That choice carries a sharper edge because McIlroy was fined $3 million in 2023 for bowing out of the event, with the PGA Tour saying at the time that players could miss only one Signature Event per season. The penalty came out of his end-of-season Player Impact Program bonus money. This week, the issue is less about discipline than about fit and fatigue, and McIlroy made clear he sees Harbour Town as a poor match for both.
The RBC Heritage remains a deep stop even without him. Seventeen of the world’s top 20 players are in the field, with Scottie Scheffler, the world No. 1, among them. Justin Thomas is the defending champion, while Justin Rose has also withdrawn. Ludvig Aberg, Tommy Fleetwood, Viktor Hovland, Collin Morikawa and Cameron Young are also taking part.
The field has also been expanded by 10 extra players after the PGA Tour announced that winners of 2025 events outside the top 50 in the FedExCup standings would be invited to Harbour Town in lieu of The Sentry, which was canceled this year. That change helps keep the event full, but it also underscores the same point McIlroy has been making for years: Harbour Town is a good tournament, just not one he expects to fit his game. As he put it after the 2020 round, “It’s fine,” but he did not hole enough putts to change his view.
