Rory McIlroy says he intends to significantly cut back his schedule this season in a

The tour has endured a difficult start to the year, with star players , Xander Schauffele and among those to miss events through injury. McIlroy, meanwhile, started his season on the DP World Tour and will make his first appearance of the year stateside at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am on Thursday.

TV viewing figures were already a concern for the heading into the new season. Those fears were realised with disappointing audience numbers from the four events so far this year, summed up the final round of The American Express on January 19 suffering a 60 per cent year-on-year dip in viewership.

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The tour relies on its biggest stars to drive fan interest and McIlroy's intent to play less this year is sure to be unwelcome news for the bosses at PGA Tour HQ in Ponta Vedra Beach, Florida. The Northern Irishman played 27 events across the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and Olympic games, but he plans to cut down and spend more time at home.

The cuts, he says, will be made from his PGA Tour schedule because he "likes playing in Europe," and he will look to play the minimum number of events required to keep his card.

"So the minimums, I still have to play my 15 events on this tour, so I'll make sure I fulfil my minimum here," he explained on Tuesday. "I played 27 events last year.

"I think to fulfil both minimums, I need to play around 22, so that's what I'll do. I'll play around 22, so that's five weeks. That's an extra 35 days at home, and that's something that I want to do."

McIlroy has not specified which events in America he plans to remove from his schedule, but he added he is "not afraid" to skip $20 million signature events on the PGA Tour. He has already missed the first signature event of the season – The Sentry earlier this month – and in the past he has skipped the RBC Heritage at Harbour Town, which is played the week after The Masters.

Players were previously punished for missing more than one signature event per season by having money docked from their Player Impact Program (PIP) bonuses. McIlroy lost out on £2.4million in 2024 for missing The Sentry and RBC Heritage. However, PIP came to an end last year, and it is unclear if the PGA Tour has plans to punish players for missing signature events this year.

World No. 3 McIlroy made a solid start to the season at the Dubai Desert Classic, finishing in fourth place. However, the 35-year-old has struggled at Pebble Beach in the past, finishing in a tie for 66th last year.