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Nicklaus Surprised That McIlroy Skipped Memorial

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Alex Miceli | Last updated May 27, 2025 5:30 PM ET

DUBLIN, OH - This week, Rory McIlroy is not in the Signature event field at the Memorial Tournament.

Surprising, yes. Disappointing, of course, but the Founder and Host of the Memorial Tournament, Jack Nicklaus, while disappointed, was gracious in his comments about McIlroy’s first miss since 2017.

“I’m not going to throw Rory under the bus, I like Roy too much, he's a good kid,” Nicklaus said in a small scrum of reporters on Tuesday. “He's played some great golf...… He's got to make his own calls on things. Could he have done them differently, probably, but that's all right, I probably could have done some of mine differently, too. So, I'm not. complaining about Rory.

Nicklaus confirmed he was slightly surprised that the newly minted Career Grand Slam member decided to skip this year’s Memorial.

More surprising is that McIlroy did not talk with Nicklaus to apprise him of his plans.

“I was sort of aware of it about the middle of last week,” Nicklaus said, but did not go into details about how he became aware of McIlroy’s absence.

Nicklaus understands the requirements of McIlroy’s time, mainly because he suffered in similar situations when playing competitively and was always in demand.

The Golden Bear sometimes called tournaments to let them know he was not coming.

“Guys have got schedules and got things they do, and I haven't talked to him for him to tell me why or why not,” Nicklaus said. “It's just his call. I made a lot of calls that I had to make when I played to or not play, and sometimes it wasn't as popular as people thought it was. But, you know, sometimes you have to make those calls.”

Nicklaus, like McIlroy, likes to play the week before a major tournament. If he played Memorial and then the Canadian Open, his third in a row would be the U.S. Open. Even though McIlroy kept to that schedule in 2022 through 2024, it clearly is a lot of golf leading into a major.

“I don't hold anything against Rory for that; he did what he likes to play,” Nicklaus said. “McIlroy, I know he likes to play so many in a row. He likes to play the week before the U.S. Open. And so that's what he's doing. So, you know, I really don't have a comment on it. It's very difficult, very difficult. I'm a big Rory fan, I always have been. I'm sure that I will remain that way. I just, I was a little surprised.”

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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