On Wednesday, in a press conference ahead of the Wells Fargo Championship, Rory McIlroy announced that he would not be rejoining the PGA Tour policy board. The North Irish golfer informed that there was a set of people who did not want him back.

Hours later, it was revealed that the likes of Patrick Cantlay, Jordan Spieth and Tiger Woods voted against the return of McIlroy. This development has sent shockwaves across the golfing community. Commissioner Jay Monahan would later broke his silence on this.

In November 2023, McIlroy had stepped down from the tour policy board due to personal and professional commitments. The 25-time PGA Tour winner though was happy to return when reports surfaced up claiming that Webb Simpson had urged him to be his replacement.

When asked about McIlroy’s rejection by Golf Magazine’s Dylan Dethier, Monahan claimed it was simply a “governance process” and not a commentary on McIlroy’s “perspective and influence“.

Today’s news is in no way a commentary on Rory’s important perspective and influence. It’s simply a matter of adherence to our governance process by which a Tour player becomes a board member.

Jay Monahan said.

McIlroy needed a majority for his return. While the trio of Cantlay, Spieth and Woods were against his return, Adam Scott and Peter Malnati did vote in favor of McIlroy. With him not returning to this post, Simpson will have see out his term until 2025.

Several PGA Tour pros did not want Rory McIlroy back on policy board

It seems the PGA Tour policy board were not the only one who did not want Rory McIlroy back into it. Several PGA Tour pros spoke about this and expressed that they didn’t wanted to see him walk right back in again after resigning from the post around six months ago.

One tour professional, Kevin Streelman, said that he understood the decision of McIlroy, but claimed that there was no coming back once he left the position.

He was very clear that it was too much for him. He had business dealings, he has a kid, he wants to focus on his game. Trust me, I get it. But once you quit, you’re not getting back.

Kevin Streelman said as per NUCLR Golf.

Meanwhile, James Hahn, ranked at 409 in OWGR, wondered what would have happened if Simpson named someone else as his replacement.

Imagine if instead of Rory, Webb said he wanted Nate Lashley, who has been vocal against some of the Tour policy decisions, or named me to replace him. There would be an absolute uproar. People would be saying, ‘You can’t do that.

James Hahn said as per Golfweek.

It is likely that the debate regarding this will go on for a while. McIlroy on the other hand, would like to keep this aside and shift his focus at the Wells Fargo Championship and hope for a strong performance here before he heads to the Valhalla course next week, where he won his second PGA Championship in 2014.