Newly crowned Masters champion Rory McIlroy will not feature at the PGA Tour’s signature RBC Heritage – which rewards its winner with £2.7million in prize money. Over a decade of pent-up emotions, expectations, and misery were all released by the Northern Irishman on the 18th green at Augusta National, as he finally received a green jacket, completing a coveted career Grand Slam.
This not only cemented McIlroy further as a golfing legend but also bolstered his seasonal winnings to an already eye-watering sum of roughly £10m. The 35-year-old had won twice on the Tour already in 2025, at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and the Players Championship, but he won’t take part in the next event on the calendar – the Heritage – which could have seen him pocket another multi-million-pound prize had he prevailed.
South Carolina’s RBC Heritage is one of the Tour’s Signature Events and offers a lucrative £15m total prize pot to those who take the trip to Harbour Town Golf Links. Though McIlroy’s exact reasoning behind pulling out of the event is unknown, comments made after his Masters win suggest the 35-year-old will return home to Northern Ireland to celebrate with his parents, missing the competition.
“It feels incredible. This is my 17th time here, and I started to wonder if it would ever be my time,” McIlroy said during his Butler Cabin debrief. “The last 10 years coming here with the burden of the Grand Slam on my shoulder and trying to achieve it.
“I wonder what we’re going to talk about going into next year. I’m absolutely honoured, thrilled, and proud to be able to call myself a Masters champion. I want to say hello to my mum and dad, they’re back in Northern Ireland, and I can’t wait to celebrate this next week with them.”
However, even if McIlroy had not claimed the green jacket this time around, chances are that he may have swerved the Heritage anyway – as he has in many years past.
Since McIlroy turned professional in 2007, he has only graced the links event three times: first in 2009, next in 2020, and last year in 2024. In all of these appearances, the Northern Irishman has struggled, failing to ever break the top 20 and finishing a dismal T33 just 12 months ago – a decision to participate that was perhaps influenced by the Heritage becoming a Signature Event in 2024.
Simply, the course doesn’t play to McIlroy’s strengths. The short-treelined links venue doesn’t suit the long driving-reliant McIlroy, but instead, favours accurate approaches. With his energy usually spent at Augusta National, too, McIlroy has been known to avoid this event.
A PGA Tour star who enjoys the South Carolina course is current holder Scottie Scheffler. The American impressed in 2024 to win by three strokes and will head into the tournament favoured to retain his crown after a fourth-place finish in Georgia.
Most of the Tour’s premier players will also be in attendance, including Ludvig Aberg, who looked on course for another top Masters finish before a collapse on 18 saw him end the event in seventh.