Rory McIlroy committed earlier this year to play in the Frys.com Open, which will start the 2014-15 season on the PGA Tour in October, but now he will be unable to make it.
By winning the Open Championship at Royal Liverpool and the PGA Championship at Valhalla, he qualified for the PGA Grand Slam of Golf in Bermuda, which begins the day after the final round of the Fry’s at Silverado Country Club in Napa.
So McIlroy, No. 1 in the World Golf Rankings, has deferred his commitment to the tournament by one year.
“Fry’s congratulates Rory on his victories and looks forward to him playing next year,” tournament president Duke Butler said in a release. “We are going to have an outstanding tournament this year, with many well-known professionals competing at Silverado.”
McIlroy is one of eight players who received a waiver from the PGA Tour to participate in the 2012 Turkish Airlines Open, an unsanctioned event that was held opposite the Frys.com Open.
As part of the waiver, each player agreed to play in the California-based event at least once in the following three years, a window that will end in 2015.
McIlroy’s manager contacted tournament officials to indicate that the 25-year-old would not be playing this fall, and McIlroy sent a letter confirming his intention to play in the event in 2015.
The Fry’s was first played at Cordevalle Golf Club in San Martin in 2010, but is moving to Silverado this fall, when Jimmy Walker will defend his title on Oct. 9-12.
