In a year that saw him suffer another near-miss in his quest to add a fifth major championship to his CV, yet also enjoy four wins and a sixth Race to Dubai title, RORY MCILROY reflects on his 17h full season as a tour pro and how he hopes to change up the script in 2025
How do sum a season that has seen you enjoy so much success around the world, yet will ultimately be judged by some as simply another year where you failed to add to your tally of major championship wins?
It’s been quite the year, no doubt about it. But you know, I’m super happy with where I am in my career and in my life, and I feel like everything’s worked out the way it was supposed to.
I know how some people are going to view my year – and I view my year similarly in many respects – but at the same time, I still have to remember I won four times and I won my sixth Race to Dubai. I accumulated a lot of big finishes and big performances, and the two guys that had better years than me have had career years.
Xander [Schauffele] won two majors, and Scottie [Scheffler] has won seven times, including The Players Championship, the Masters, and an Olympic gold medal. They are the only two guys this year that I think that have had better years than me, so I have to remind myself that while it wasn’t a great year, it was still a pretty decent one.
Of course, I could be sitting here with a fifth major title, and I am not. So that stings and that’s something that I have to come to terms with, but at the same time I’ve got plenty more opportunities in the future. But I’ve really just tried to focus on the positives this year of consistently performing at the highest level
I’ve prided myself on my consistency throughout my career but especially over the last few years. If I’m not winning, I’m close to winning, in the top five or top 10. Sometimes that can get criticised because people think I don’t win as much as I should, but it’s competitive out here and I feel like I have a pretty good win percentage compared to my peers. It’s been a consistent year and the only thing that’s missing is a couple more wins.
Does each passing year that you don’t win another major make you more determined to prove your critics wrong?
It’s certainly a motivation, but I think I need to find that motivation from within. I’ve never been one to look externally for motivation. Sometimes, but for the most part, I think you need to find it within yourself, that motivation to go on and achieve what you want to.
Ultimately, I just want to be the best golfer that I can be. That’s what I’ve always wanted, and I’ve never knew where that would get me. But it’s got me pretty far. So it seems like a recipe that I should keep going with.
But yeah, I think I do a good job of setting myself goals throughout the year and trying to, I’m much better at setting like little short-term goals and trying to work my way through those, and then hopefully by the end of the year it sort of adds up to something bigger than that.
As long as I’m feeling healthy and feeling like I have the game to compete at the highest level, I’m going to try to get the best out of myself up until the point I feel like I’m to longer good enough to compete at the highest level.
What does it mean to you to win a sixth Race to Dubai title and equal Seve’s record of European Tour money lists?
Yeah, it’s a huge achievement for me personally. It felt like it was on the cards over the last two rounds in Dubai, but it never really hits you until it actually happens.
To win the European points list might not mean that much to anyone else, but it means an awful lot to me, and it’s something I’ve tried to target towards the end of each season.
Just thinking about what Seve meant to the game, to this tour, and to the European Ryder Cup team, gets me very emotional, so to sit alongside him in having won six titles is hard to get my head around.
We sit in the locker room at the Ryder Cup, and the place is just filled with Seve quotes, every wall you look at. We had a changing room last year in Italy with the last shirt he ever wore when he played the Ryder Cup at Oak Hill in 1995. That’s what he means to European golf.
It’s always nice to end the year on a positive note, so I’m glad to have done that by winning the DP World Tour Championship and the Race to Dubai.
Are you now targeting Colin Montgomerie’s record of eight Order of Merit wins?
I think I’ve probably got a good ten years left in me, so as long as the Race to Dubai is happening and there’s an Order of Merit to be competing for, then I’m going to want to win it. So, yeah, I’ll be looking to chase down Monty’s record for sure.
I’ve just won my third in a row, and I’ve really made it a priority of my schedule over the last few years to give myself the best chance coming into the end of the year to win the Race to Dubai. I don’t see that being any different for the foreseeable future.
You’ve played 27 tournaments this year, which is a lot by anyone’s standards, but particularly a top-10 player. What are your plans for 2025 in terms of your schedule?
Yeah, it’s been a very busy year, playing on both tours and trying to build in some rest in between the big events. If I can trim it down to 22 or 23 next season that will be good for me in the long run.
I’ve been on tour for 17 or 18 years, and although I’m not slowing down, I just have to take care of myself and my body a little bit more.
Of course, something will have to give somewhere in the schedule for me to get down to that number, but I’m not going to miss the big tournaments in the Middle East, I’m not going to miss Wentworth, the Irish Open or the Scottish Open. There were a few events I played in America this season that I don’t typically play and I think that’s where I’m going to have to trim it a little bit.
Given all the back and forth that has gone on this year with LIV Golf and the PGA Tour, how do you see things panning out in the months ahead?
I’d like to think that by the end of the year we’ll be a step closer to knowing what the landscape will look like somewhere down the line, but I don’t see anything changing in the immediate future.
I think all the main tours are going to keep trucking along and doing their own thing for a while yet, and I think the best thing we can maybe hope for is a bit of crossover between them, and then maybe while that is happening over that period of time, whether it be one year, two years, three years, just trying to figure out the rest.
I think the hard thing is there are legal precedents that have been set in America and here, and that makes it very difficult. No-one likes to see lawyers getting involved – I certainly don’t – and that’s a big part of the issue. I think there is a willingness from all parties to get some sort of agreement, but you’ve got a tonne of lawyers in the middle of it.
It was reported that you weren’t quite on the same page as Tiger Woods on a number of issues relating to the future direction of the tours and that he voted against you re-joining the PGA Tour’s Policy Board. How are things between you now?
I think friends can have disagreements, or not see things eye to eye on things, and still be friends. There’s no strain there. I think we might see the future of golf a little bit differently, but I don’t think that should place any strain on a relationship or on a friendship.
I’m not on the policy board, but I’m in some way involved in the transaction committee. I don’t have a vote, so I don’t have a meaningful say in what happens in the future.
You’re about to start playing alongside Tiger in the new TGL indoor league in January. How excited are you about that and what do you think fans will make of it?
Golf is so rooted in tradition, and that’s a great thing, but it also important to try to deliver golf to a younger demographic. I’ve always been big on that. I come from a place where golf has always been really accessible, and I’d love to see more kids play the game.
TGL, while rooted in the traditions of the game, is taking a bold step into the increasingly tech-fuelled future of sports. TGL will tap into the appeal of team golf within an exciting, fan-friendly environment, comparable to sitting courtside at an NBA game. I am confident TGL will widen the appeal of golf to younger and more diverse fans and serve as another avenue to introduce people to the game I love.