DUBAI – It’s been a yo-yo kind of year when it comes to him Rory McIlroy and what motivates him. There’s always been the Masters, of course, that last unchecked Grand Slam box before April 2025. But after the Masters? McIlroy admitted he fell into a motivational lull that seemed to last for months.
After that lull came two events he had long circled on his calendar: his home Open at Royal Portrush and an away Ryder Cup. I had no problem getting up for those emotional races. But now that he’s here, in the 11th month of a jam-packed year, polishing off what he recently called a “10 out of 10” season, the topic of inspiration came up again Thursday night.
McIlroy had just signed for an opening 66 on the dirt course at Jumeirah Golf Estates – just one point below his recent, stellar average here – when he was prompted on the subject of consistency. He’s in the Middle East now – for him PD World Tournament Championship – and he’s going to London next week. He will go to Australia in early December. Last month he was in India, and before that he took part in the most mentally grueling Ryder Cup he has ever played. Forward that it was his three-win season, a major PGA Tour crown. So has this year taken anything away from him?
Maybe a little, he admitted. But he added that keeping the mind and body right are inextricably linked.
“I was really inspired by what Justin Rose did in Memphis this year,” McIlroy began. “And then what he did in the Ryder Cup. And I look at what he does, you know, to play at this level at 45. I’d like to be able to say — hopefully I’ll be able to do the same thing in 10 years.
“I look at him, I look at some of the things he does. He has his recovery trailer on tour and he spends a lot of time making sure his body is in the right place.”
He sure does. Rose sends that recovery trailer around the US to every event he plays, equipped with a red light bed, colt and hot tub, a stationary bike, fresh oxygen masks, a steam shower and infrared sauna. That Rose cares about his ability is not an anomaly in these days of Strokes Gained: Body Time, but the work has brought results.
It was the Memphis win McIlroy alluded to, his 2-1 performance at Bethpage, but also his runner-up finish to McIlroy at the Masters, or that T3 behind McIlroy at Pebble Beach, or last summer’s T2 finish behind Xander Schauffele at the 2024 Open.
Despite Rose’s unlikely accomplishments, there’s something about a professional golfer’s early 40s that plays a lot more like a true coin flip. You have your Rose types, or Sergio Garcias and Adam Scotts; maybe even Henrik Stenson – who won the 2016 Open at the age of 41. But for every one of them, there are just as many who cross the imaginary threshold into their fifth decade and their game doesn’t seem to be catching on. Dustin Johnson, who turned pro around the same time as McIlroy and found his 30s quite fruitful, is finding his early 40s much less so.
How McIlroy intends to ensure it’s the right side of that coin, he thinks, depends on how much golf he puts this body through in 2026, especially after (long) banner seasons in 2024 and 2025.
“I think if I want to play another 10 years at the highest level,” McIlroy asserted, “then, yeah, I’m going to have to cut back on my schedule so that — you know, it’s weird — I want to play less every year to play. more in the future, you know?”
This “weird” theory – to play less to play longer – comes along with the fact that his 27 events in 2024 were the most he had played in a decade. Twenty-five events in 2025 feels like an upper limit.
“I think, as the years go by, I’ll try to get it back to 20 (events) or try to get as close to 20 as possible,” McIlroy said. “But the only reason is to look to the future and see, OK, when I’m Justin Rose’s age, I want to have the game and the consistency to play the way he plays at that age.”
