Rory McIlroy surprisingly skips Tommy Fleetwood celebrations to jet off for luxury reason

Rory McIlroy was conspicuous with his absence from Tommy Fleetwood’s FedEx Cup celebrations.

And it has now been revealed that the Grand Slam Champion had instead jetted to New York to enjoy the tennis.

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AFP

McIlroy’s PGA Tour season came to a quiet end as he finished the TOUR Championship in T23, 12 shots behind eventual winner Fleetwood.

Many fans had expected him to be on hand to give his great Ryder Cup mate a congratulatory hug on the 18th green as Fleetwood secured his emotional and long-awaited win.

But while Shane Lowry and Justin Rose were among those to honour Fleetwood, McIlroy was nowhere to be seen.

And that’s because the Northern Irishman had already long departed East Lake Golf Club, instead flying straight to Flushing Meadows to take in some US Open action.

McIlroy was spotted alongside his caddie Harry Diamond in the stands of Arthur Ashe Stadium watching Novak Djokovic beat Learner Tien in their first round match.

McIlroy is a big tennis fan and was also seen taking pictures with fans at the major venue.

It was in contrast to how Fleetwood reacted to McIlroy’s iconic Masters win in April.

Fleetwood, who finished T21 at Augusta, waited at the back of the green to greet McIlroy as he soaked in the praise after becoming Grand Slam champion.

Fleetwood also made reference to the 36-year-old in his victorious TOUR Championship press conference, saying: “I’ve drawn on many different things, the support of my team around me every day, friends, family and the golfers around me.

“I think Rory’s story at Masters, I’m nowhere near Rory’s career, but I think him winning the Masters this year was a great show of resilience and mental strength and I drew on that as well.”

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Fleetwood carded a final round 68 to beat Patrick Cantlay and Russell Henley to glory in the PGA Tour’s lucrative season-ending event.

The 34-year-old, who has had to suffer plenty of heartbreak on the PGA Tour, was superb at East Lake and scooped the 2025 FedEx Cup title as well as the $10million prize pot.

McIlroy, meanwhile, did speak to the media before heading to New York and said he’s excited for next few months despite the PGA Tour season coming to an end.

He said: “The season is not over for me, I’ve still got a lot of golf coming up so I refuse to call this the end of the season.

“The week wasn’t great, I hit it better and I improved on things I wanted to this week, especially off the tee, I was probably leading strokes gained of the tee this week.

“I just couldn’t get the speed of the greens all week and I struggled to see lines so that was really the story of the week.

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“My putting was so good last week but off the tee wasn’t good so it kind of inverted this week.

“But my game feels close and it certainly isn’t far away.”

McIlroy will play the Irish Open at The K Club at the start of September before heading to Wentworth for the BMW PGA Championship, where he recently purchased and renovated a new mansion for his family’s relocation back to the UK.

McIlroy will play alongside Fleetwood in the DP World Tour’s showpiece event as they prepare to star alongside each other in the upcoming Ryder Cup.

He added: “It means a lot, those are two big weeks for me to try and extend my lead in the Race to Dubai. That become a pretty important thing to me, I’m chasing a little bit of history.

“I want to put my head down and play well those couple of weeks, that are two home tournaments for me.

“It’s a big couple of weeks to try to play well and try to sharpen up some aspects of the game heading into the Ryder Cup.”