Rory McIlroy’s PGA Tour year started with one triumphant walk down the 18th fairway at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, where he uttered a prescient message to caddy Harry Diamond.
“Start the way you want to go,” said McIlroy, en route to winning that week.
McIlroy then won the Players ahead career Grand Slam finish in Masters. or the period of illness engulfed his summer before a home Open at Royal Portrush produced a storming finale to a “dream” season that included a win at the Open Open, a win outside the Ryder Cup and a BBC Sports Personality of the Year Trophy.
This year there was almost all about McIlroy, who has had to grapple with an existential question for months now: What’s next?
That question loomed over his summer, but by the time the Open rolled around, McIlroy had apparently found a way to enjoy a dream come true as he repositioned himself for the rest of his professional career. The goal and focus for the next phase of Rory McIlroy’s career is to win the tournaments that matter in the places that matter. The rest is the rest.
Over the weekend, McIlroy won another award, taking home his third RTE Sportsman of the Year award and looked to the future accepting a hard truth about life after a season that had everything he wanted.
“You know, I think mentally, I have to be comfortable, this is probably going to be my best year ever,” McIlroy told RTE after accepting the award. “Who knows? I hope not, you know. I hope I still have many more great years ahead of me. But you know, no matter what I do next, I’m only going to be able to win my first Masters once. And I really enjoyed that.
“And I’ve relished the opportunity to bring the green jacket around the world and showcase it. It’s been a great year, but I still think I’ve got a lot more to achieve. So I’m still ambitious.”
After a subpar performance at the US Open at Oakmont, McIlroy said he was working to find a new mountain to climb. A home opener at Royal Portrush was easy, but there will be more to come. After checking the Masters and a Ryder Cup off his career to-do list, one mountain looms larger than the rest.
“I think at this point in my career, I’m looking for those big tournaments and massive moments,” McIlroy said. “The major championships in golf are one of them. The Ryder Cups. And then, you know, obviously the Olympics. I’ve enjoyed two Olympics now, Tokyo and Paris, and I’ve been very close to getting a medal both times. So in 2028 in LA I’d like to give myself another chance to get on that podium and bring a medal back to my country.”
As McIlroy looks toward the next phase of his career, he is taking inspiration from man who fought him for the green jacket in April.
“I was really inspired by what Justin Rose did in Memphis this year,” McIlroy said at the DP World Tour Championship. “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.”
Rose has called this phase of his career an “Indian Summer”. He’s not sure how long that will last, but he has posted two runner-up finishes in the last five championships, won the FedEx St. Rose has poured everything into keeping his game sharp and his body healthy.
It’s easy to forget that Rory McIlroy did THIS IN this level for almost two decades. His game has had minor ebbs and flows, but Rory McIlroy has been Rory McIlroy for nearly 20 years straight. It’s an impressive feat that often gets lost in the everyday discourse surrounding the actual golf needle.
“You look at what (Novak) Djokovic is doing at Wimbledon the last couple of weeks,” McIlroy said at the Genesis Scottish Open in July, “or what some of those guys have done or what someone like Cristiano Ronaldo is still doing at 40, or Tom Brady in American football; that part of longevity is something that can be talked about a lot.”
“Because once you get to a certain level, I feel like the journey up the road is almost — it’s not — I won’t say it’s easy, but you have momentum and you’re riding that wave to the top. And then once you get there, yeah, it takes just as much work, if not more work, to stay there. Because I think about my career, in my senior year, before I had even earned 1 major. Scottie Scheffler.”
McIlroy’s goal is to continue to be this Rory McIlroy for another 10 to 15 years. To do this, he knows that changes are needed to stay fresh and not be beaten by time.
“I think if I want to play another 10 years at the highest level,” McIlroy said at the DP World Tour Championship, “then, yeah, I’m going to have to reduce my schedule so that — you know, it’s weird — I want to play less every year to play. more in the future, you know?”
The reduced schedule fits with McIlroy’s vision to focus only on big tournaments, big moments, iconic courses and global golf.
After a dream year that included an existential quest in between, McIlroy knows what’s on the horizon and has a plan for how to get there. Nothing can top 2025, but McIlroy is no longer looking to what comes next. He has a clear vision of what life looks like after a season of dreams, and as it turns out, it’s not so different from the previous life – the mountains he plans to climb are different, but the vision is no less grand.
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