Rory McIlroy To Skip Upcoming $20m PGA Tour Signature Event
The Northern Irishman is not in the field for next week's RBC Heritage
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Once The Masters concludes on Sunday evening, PGA Tour players will take the two-and-a-half hour drive east to Hilton Head Island for the RBC Heritage.
The historic tournament is one of the PGA Tour's Signature Events and will feature a huge $20m purse with a $3.6m first prize, and a star-studded field has been confirmed.
A total of 18 of the world's top 20 will be teeing up at Harbour Town Golf Links, with only Rory McIlroy and Hideki Matsuyama missing. Scottie Scheffler will headline alongside the likes of Cameron Young, Tommy Fleetwood, Xander Schauffele, Ludvig Aberg and past champions Justin Thomas, Matt Fitzpatrick and Jordan Spieth.
McIlroy skipping the RBC Heritage is not exactly a surprise, but it is the first Signature Event of the season he is missing.
He has only ever played in the event twice in his career, in 2009 and in 2020 - and there was controversy in 2023 when he once again decided to give the tournament a miss.
That was because the PGA Tour, at the time, only allowed its players to skip one of the big money 'Designated' events, and McIlroy had already missed one at that point. It meant he didn't receive $3m of his Player Impact Program payout that season.
Players can be added to the RBC Heritage field via the Aon Next 10, concluding following The Masters, and by making it into the world's top 30. Here's a look at the full confirmed field so far:
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RBC Heritage field 2026
- Ludvig Aberg
- Daniel Berger
- Akshay Bhatia
- Chandler Blanchet
- Keegan Bradley
- Michael Brennan
- Jacob Bridgeman
- Sam Burns
- Brian Campbell
- Patrick Cantlay
- Ricky Castillo
- Bud Cauley
- Corey Conners
- Pierceson Coody
- Jason Day
- Nico Echavarria
- Harris English
- Steven Fisk
- Matt Fitzpatrick
- Tommy Fleetwood
- Rickie Fowler
- Ryan Fox
- Ryan Gerard
- Lucas Glover
- Chris Gotterup
- Ben Griffin
- Harry Hall
- Brian Harman
- Russell Henley
- Garrick Higgo
- Joe Highsmith
- Ryo Hisatsune
- Tom Hoge
- Nicolai Hojgaard
- Viktor Hovland
- Sungjae Im
- Johnny Keefer
- Michael Kim
- Si Woo Kim
- Kurt Kitayama
- Jake Knapp
- Min Woo Lee
- David Lipsky
- Shane Lowry
- Robert MacIntyre
- Denny McCarthy
- Matt McCarty
- Maverick McNealy
- Collin Morikawa
- William Mouw
- Alex Noren
- Andrew Novak
- Taylor Pendrith
- JT Poston
- Aldrich Potgieter
- Andrew Putnam
- Patrick Rodgers
- Justin Rose
- Xander Schauffele
- Scottie Scheffler
- Adam Schenk
- Jordan Smith
- Austin Smotherman
- JJ Spaun
- Jordan Spieth
- Sam Stevens
- Sepp Straka
- Nick Taylor
- Sahith Theegala
- Justin Thomas
- Michael Thorbjornsen
- Sami Valimaki
- Jhonattan Vegas
- Karl Vilips
- Matt Wallace
- Gary Woodland
- Sudarshan Yellamaraju
- Cameron Young
RBC Heritage alternates list:
- Keith Mitchell
- Taylor Moore
- Stephan Jaeger
- Alex Smalley
- Marco Penge
- Tony Finau
- AJ Ewart
- Matti Schmid
- Adrien Dumont de Chassart
- John Parry
Elliott Heath is our News Editor and has been with Golf Monthly since early 2016 after graduating with a degree in Sports Journalism. He covered the 2022 and 2025 Masters from Augusta National and was there by the 18th green to watch Rory McIlroy complete the career grand slam. He has also covered five Open Championships on-site including the 150th at St Andrews.
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