There’s a rarely spoken undercurrent among the best players on the PGA Tour. A lot of them love playing in America … and don’t really want to travel far to hone their craft. But don’t be so quick to blame them. America is the biggest television market, where the history of the Tour exists and where the majority of big-money sponsors hail from.
But is pro golf in America near its peak? Both in view-ability, sponsor-ability, or just overall popularity?
Rory McIlroy definitely thinks so. Or at least he did in January 2024 when he spoke at length about trying to make the pro game more global. To tap into markets — meaning fans, sponsors and media — that are underserved but also ready to grow in the golf world.
McIlroy used parts of his visit to Dubai 16 months ago to explain that he thinks a global tour — not one bifurcated, or even trifurcated between America, Europe and wherever LIV Golf plays — would spend a lot of time in America, but would also travel to Australia, Singapore, East Asia, the Middle East, South Africa, etc.
“If everyone is talking about growing the game,” McIlroy said then, “especially if these investors are going to come into our game and they want a return on their capital, I think everyone needs to start thinking more globally around it.”
That was him talking the talk, waiting for that investment to become official. Now more than a year later, he is walking the walk.
In the last 10 days, McIlroy has added multiple fall events to his schedule where he has rarely, if ever, played before. Last week, it was a two-year commitment to play the Australian Open, starting this December at Royal Melbourne and continuing through next December at Kingston Heath. Those are two of the greatest golf courses on the planet — recent and future Presidents Cup hosts — and also one of the premier golfing events on the annual calendar.
The Aussie Open has been played more than 100 times, dating back to 1904, and hosts one of the richest histories for national opens in the world. That’s part of McIlroy’s campaign — national opens. He wishes they were prioritized by modern players as much as their history would suggest. More than ever before, McIlroy’s upcoming schedule reflects that.
McIlroy is not currently in the field for next week’s Memorial tournament (though he has 48 hours to change that) but will play the Canadian Open the week after — one of the beloved national opens on the PGA Tour schedule. After that, it’s the U.S. Open at Oakmont — a major, yes, but a national open, too. After that, McIlroy is committed to playing the Travelers Championship in Connecticut before taking two weeks off ahead of yet another national open: the Scottish.
We won’t technically count the Open Championship as a national open, though it will absolutely be one for him. Royal Portrush is basically as close as McIlroy will ever get to competing where he grew up (save for last year’s Irish Open at Royal County Down). From the Open, he’ll have the FedEx Cup Playoffs, but don’t necessarily expect him to play all three. In November, he mentioned the idea of not playing the first of three events, which is held in Memphis.
McIlroy’s national open tour continues in September with the Irish Open at the K Club — which has been confirmed. From there, it’s likely he’ll play in the BMW PGA Championship a week later, at Wentworth. Not just because that’s the flagship event on the DP World Tour, but also because McIlroy has been building a house in the posh neighborhood near Wentworth Club.
There may be a Bethpage Black scouting/team-bonding trip sprinkled into his late August or early September plans, but if not, McIlroy will arrive at the Ryder Cup not long later. After which, he’ll probably put the clubs aside for a break. But it won’t last long, because just this week it was announced he’ll be playing a new event in India, the DP World India Championship, in New Delhi, which may as well be a national open, too. It will mark the first time a reigning Masters champion has played in India. The reception is expected to be grand, just as it was when Bryson DeChambeau, the reigning U.S. Open champion, visited in January.
While the announcement came this week, fresh off that Masters win, it has nothing to do with flaunting the green jacket in a location it has never been. McIlroy’s decision to add India has been in place for quite a while. In fact, the promotional video released Wednesday was filmed on Jan. 15 in Dubai, right at the outset of the 2025 season.
What does that tell us? That McIlroy’s 2025 is mostly following script. He promised last fall that he was going to scale back his playing schedule on the PGA Tour. He did that a bit in the spring, and moving forward his next seven months are likely to involve seven events on the DP World Tour, and only a handful in the United States. The only question now is if the green jacket will be coming along for the ride.
