Rory McIlroy will not play in this week’s Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Connecticut.
The decision makes it the third PGA Tour Signature Event McIlroy has skipped in 2026, joining the RBC Heritage and the Cadillac Championship. He will have appeared in five of the eight Signature Events this season. He is the only eligible player inside the top 50 in the world rankings not in the field.
McIlroy, the world No. 2, is coming off a disappointing U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills, where a pair of weekend 73s left him in a tie for 32nd.
The six-time major champion has been open about scaling back his schedule. After The Memorial Tournament, McIlroy said his reduced slate reflects a deliberate lifestyle choice. “The luxury of being a PGA Tour player is we’re free to pick and choose our own schedule for the most part,” McIlroy said. “I took advantage of that this year and I’ll continue to take advantage of that for as long as I can.”
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McIlroy now sits at nine PGA Tour starts this season. If he follows a similar schedule to 2025 and plays the Genesis Scottish Open, The Open Championship, the BMW Championship, and the Tour Championship, he would finish the year at 13 events, two short of the Tour’s 15-event minimum required to qualify for statistical leaderboards.
McIlroy cited his new home outside of London and a preference for links preparation as reasons to step away. He is next scheduled to compete at the Genesis Scottish Open on July 9–12 at The Renaissance Club, followed by The Open Championship at Royal Birkdale.
“I’ll be playing some links golf coming up,” McIlroy said after the U.S. Open. “It’s my favorite time of the year to go back home and play. This was not too dissimilar to an Open Championship in terms of how the golf course started to play over the weekend.”
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World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler will headline the Travelers field alongside Xander Schauffele, Wyndham Clark, Tommy Fleetwood, Collin Morikawa, and Cameron Young. Defending champion Keegan Bradley, Matt Fitzpatrick, and Russell Henley are also in the field at TPC River Highlands.
The Travelers Championship is the final Signature Event of the 2026 PGA Tour season, with a $20 million purse.
