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Rory McIlroy wants to cut back on schedule moving forward: ‘I hit a bit of a wall of post-U.S. Open’

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Rory McIlroy wants to cut back on schedule moving forward: ‘I hit a bit of a wall of post-U.S. Open’

Rory McIlroy still has a ways to go to close out his 2024 campaign, but it sounds like he’s more than ready to be done.

McIlroy, speaking after his top-10 finish at the Tour Championship on Sunday at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, thinks he needs to cut back on his schedule moving forward.

“It’s been a long season, and I’m going to just have to think about trying to build in a few extra breaks here and there next year and going forward because I feel like I hit a bit of a wall of post-U.S. Open, and still feel a little bit of that hangover,” McIlroy said.

The Tour Championship was his 22nd tournament of the year. While that signaled the end of the PGA Tour’s season, McIlroy still has five events left on his slate — including next week’s Irish Open and the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in October. McIlroy has more than a 1,000-point lead in the DP World Tour’s Race to Dubai standings, too. That season wraps up with a pair of playoff events in Dubai in November.

Playing in 27 tournaments in one year, McIIroy said firmly, is too many for him. At this stage of his career, he now wants to pull back.

“I’m usually sort of like a 22 sort of person,” McIlroy said. “But again, that was when I was sort of in my 20s and didn’t have the responsibilities that I do now. I’m going to cut it back to like 18 or 20 a year going forward, I think.”

The Tour Championship was McIlroy’s sixth event in the past eight weeks, which included his T5 finish at the Olympics in Paris and his missed cut at the British Open. He also competed in all three FedEx Cup Playoffs events before finishing T9 on Sunday in Atlanta. Scottie Scheffler rolled to a dominant win at the Tour Championship, which marked his seventh victory of the season.

“I feel like the tournaments came thick and fast, and obviously with the Olympics thrown in there as well, this year, it sort of condensed everything a bit,” McIlroy said.

McIlroy won twice on the PGA Tour this season, first at the Zurich Classic in April and then again in his next start at the Wells Fargo Championship. He finished second at the U.S. Open after stumbling in the final holes, which extended his major championship drought that’s hit a full decade now. He missed just one cut in 19 starts and had seven top-10 finishes.

Though the PGA Tour has eight fall tournaments on its schedule, the 2025 season will start on Jan. 2 with The Sentry in Hawaii. That tournament is a Signature Event, though McIlroy skipped it this year and instead made his season debut at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, which is the second Signature Event on the 2025 schedule.

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