Rory McIlroy calls out 1 risk of new PGA Tour schedule: 'You have to be careful'

On Wednesday at the 2026 Genesis Scottish Open, Rory McIlroy talked himself into trouble.

For years, McIlroy has sung the praises of golf's National Opens, making a real effort to raise their profiles by playing tournaments himself.

Along with the US Open and the (British) Open, the six-time major champion has played in the Scottish Open and the RBC Canadian Open (so far this year). Last season, he won the Irish Open in September and the Australian Open in December.

McIlroy, however, is the biggest star on the modern PGA Tour, and his love for the National Opens and loyalty to the PGA Tour may soon be at odds.

That's because the PGA Tour is overhauling its tournament structure. From 2028, the Tour will divide itself into the Championship Series, for the top 130 professionals or more, and the Challenger Series, for everyone.

A key point of the new structure is that the Championship Series will be closed: no one can enter or leave it during the season. In contrast, National Opens are inherently open: pros have many ways to play. In addition, the Scottish Open is co-sanctioned by the DP World Tour.

One big question arises from those two facts: How does the National Opens in this week's Scottish Open fit into the new PGA Tour schedule, if at all?

On Wednesday, Rory was pondering that question.

McIlroy praises the National Opens in the new PGA Tour structure

In a pre-tournament press conference at the Genesis Scottish Open on Wednesday, McIlroy argued the PGA Tour's decision to co-sanction the Scottish Open raised the profile and greatly enhanced the event.

“Yeah, so I think since this event has been co-sanctioned, it's gone from strength to strength,” McIlroy told reporters at the Renaissance Club. “If you look at the quality of the course this week, you get a great sponsor like Genesis on board. They keep improving the golf course and the facilities every year.”

McIlroy went on to praise the “strong National Opens” as a “blueprint” for the future. He even suggested that the two guests should share the second National Open on the current PGA Tour schedule: the Canadian Open.

“So I think like these tough National Opens, this for me is a show of what could be and what can happen,” McIlroy said on Wednesday. “Yeah, I think it's a great way to get into the Open Championship. You know, I thought the Canadian Open could be co-sanctioned, and lead to the US Open. That would be fun, too, to try to build this series of National Opens with a little more meaning behind it.”

But the project to “build this series of National Opens,” as McIlroy suggested, could be more difficult in 2028 when the new-look PGA Tour begins.

“Yeah, I don't know how that fits into Track 1 and Track 2 and all that stuff. But I see this event and I see how well it's been done over the last few years, and I feel like it's the setting for other National Opens.”

McIlroy's warning about new PGA Tour schedule: 'These events need to be treated differently'

The threat posed by the new Tour program to the National Opens McIlroy seemed to see in him when he spoke to the media on Wednesday. McIlroy warned that changing these events to fit into the new system could disrupt the “fabric” of the National Opens.

“We have to be aware of that because then the National Opens lose the fabric of what they are,” warned McIlroy. “You can no longer call yourself the National Open if it is a closed competition and there is a certain number of boys.”

The closed, limited format of the future PGA Tour Championship series is one of the ways it may conflict with the National Opens. Another number of events are considered for the top region of the Tour.

PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp announced that the PGA Tour's top division will feature nearly 20 tournaments. The 2026 PGA Tour schedule includes more than 40 tournaments. So events like the Canadian Open and Scottish Open may be left out of the Championship Series altogether.

If that happens, they could still be part of the Challenger Series, but that would mean top players like McIlroy wouldn't be in the field, which would greatly reduce the number of long-running events.

Challenger Series events will also have purses of $4 million, significantly lower than the $20 million Championship Series purses, and a fraction of this year's Scottish Open purse of $9 million.

All of that led to McIlroy calling for National Opens to be “treated differently” than other PGA Tour events under the new system.

“I think these events need to be treated differently from, you know, the Traveler Championship or the RBC Heritage or anything else that's going to be in the Champions Series,” McIlroy said, referring to the PGA Tour's top division. “These tournaments need to have – there's something a little bit different about these tournaments for sure.”

World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler similarly sang the praises of the Scottish Open on Wednesday and expressed his hope that it will make it to the Championship Series.

“I think it has to work within the new system they are putting in place,” Scheffler told reporters. “This is a tournament that I think, as you can see, the field is beautiful. I think it's important that we keep it in the Championship Series because you get a lot of guys who come here to play last week.”

“Personally, I believe it's a great way to prepare for the Open Championship. It's a great golf course, and the people here are great and they do a great job of taking care of us in this tournament. I hope you can go in the right way.”

Scheffler also touched on another important aspect of the new PGA Tour schedule: getting all the best players to play all the same tournaments.

“One of the important things in our new program is to find the same, golf is very difficult to rank players if they don't play together all the time. That was something we experienced a lot during junior golf and junior golf. It is very difficult to measure who played better if you don't play against each other every week,” said Scheffler. “Having the same guys playing competitively on good golf courses week in and week out I think is the best way to organize our schedule. To get this tournament into that situation would be great.”

But one thing that hasn't been asked of McIlroy or Scheffler is how the pro can fit the new PGA Tour schedule into their lives, even without the National Opens.

Players who have qualified for the Championship series are expected to play all 20 events. That doesn't include the four major tournaments. When the majors are entered, the top players will face a full schedule of 24 tournaments.

That would be a problem for today's McIlroy. Entering the Scottish Open, McIlroy has played just nine PGA Tour-sanctioned events in 2026, and that includes the first three majors. Take them out, and he has only competed in six PGA Tour events this year.

Scheffler has played 11 major PGA Tour events this season.