Rory McILroy has only three burning ambitions in the game, and 2025 – with an attractive set of major places – presents an opportunity to eliminate two.
As he embarks on his last season in the United States, there is not much that the 35-year-old man in Northern Ireland did not achieve, amazing what modern jargon would call a Very impressive work since its return in 2007.
Almost all the golfers on the planet would be happy to exchange careers.
From a distance, he is the most prolific winner of the United Kingdom on American courses and he is an apparently permanent element in the first three of the world.
McILroy is the pivot around which Europe benefits from a huge success of the Ryder Cup, appearing in five teams winning seven competitions. He has four majors in his name among more than 40 professional victories, with 26 of those who come to the PGA Tour.
In 2022, he became the first golfer to become three times champion of the Fedex Cup, the crown of the American circuit season, and during the DP World Tour in Europe, no current member can touch him with six race to DubaĂŻ , including each of the last three years.
And yet, and yet.
He is considered an underperforming with a gaping hole in his CV otherwise sparkling because he has not yet won the Masters in Augusta to finish the big career slam.
“ All my preparation focused on four events ”
For a decade, he has tried to land this coveted green jacket to satisfy a set which currently includes trophies from two American championships PGA (2012 and 2014), The Open (2014) and US Open (2011).
The Masters is the one he wants the most, but he is also motivated by the idea of ​​winning a Ryder Cup outside – for the second time – and the addition of Olympic glory. In fact, give him those and his appetite for the success of the golf course which would ultimately be full.
“Winning the masters, winning an Olympic medal and another Ryder Cup outside, these are my three goals for the rest of my career,” McILroy told BBC Sport.
Of course, this former Olympic skeptic must wait for the Los Angeles Games in 2028 – perhaps its last realistic opportunity to win a medal – but the other two objectives are firmly in sight this year.
Thus, while he starts his 2025 PGA Tour in Pebble Beach season this week, McILroy adapts everything to be first -sided when he does in Augusta the second Thursday in April.
“I realized that everything I can control is myself,” he said. “What suits me right now is to focus fully on myself and get the most out of myself and start winning the biggest tournaments in the world.
“I have been very close for a few years, without being able to do it and that this is the main objective of this year.”
The fact that it has been more than a decade since he added for the last time to his list of major victories is one of the most surprising statistics of the modern game.
He achieved almost everything else, especially by winning the prestigious players’ championship in 2019, which was at the time when all the best in the world were in competition at Sawgrass for the flagship title of the PGA Tour.
But players are not major. Its 2025 calendar in 2025, playing more with sparing in the United States, is designed to glean success in the four major events which ultimately define the careers.
“All my practice, all my preparation, even the tournaments I play, everything is designed to be ready for these four events,” said McILroy.
“Augusta is Augusta. I have traveled my statistics and there are a few things that pointed out to me that I could certainly improve – certain shots around the Greens.”
He exploded an advance of four blows with an 80 ruinas in the 2011 masters and he was a finalist without really facing in 2022. He disappeared Tamely when he was in the last twinning with the champion Patrick Reed in 2018 in 2018 in 2018 in 2018 in 2018 in 2018 in 2018 in 2018 in 2018 in 2018 Another of its four of its four top-five Augusta finishes.
Some observers believe that the house of the first major of the year is made for the powerful game of McILroy, but it has a way to discover it technically and temperament.
‘I became a very good American open player’
The same cannot be said about the place of the second major of the year, Quail Hollow, which will stage the American PGA championship in May. McILroy won his first PGA Tour title 15 years ago and his last victory on the American circuit occurred at the same provision of Caroline du Nord last May.
“At Quail Hollow, I played a big golf course,” he said. “I won four times there.
“I competed against Xander Schauffele, who won two majors last year, and I played some of my best golf during this last round.”
McILroy is also looking forward to participating in the US Open on one of the most difficult tracks in the Pennsylvania championship in June, despite the Cup missing during his last suite nine years ago.
During the last of us, Open, he was a finalist, last year in an agonizing way after blowing an advance of two strokes on the fence of the holes to let Bryson Dechambeau enter Pinehurst.
“Oakmont is a place where I think I will know more as an American open test now than in 2016,” said McILroy, who finished the first nine in the last six editions of traditionally the most difficult major.
“I feel like I have become a very, very good American player and I have patience and discipline and state of mind to excel.”
“ I had trouble playing at home but I learn ”
The coming year could hardly be more exciting for McILroy, the open being played at the Royal Portrush in its northern Native Ireland. When Antrim links returned to rotation in 2019 after an absence of 58 years, it failed spectacular in the middle of the weight of such an impatient anticipation.
He struck his opening shot out of the limits and carded an eight on the first hole when he collapsed in a 79 in the first round, and despite a second round destroyed in 65, he missed the cup. Unfinished affairs then.
“I feel like I have a better idea of ​​how I have to approach the week to play at home with these expectations,” said McILroy.
“I had a great chance to win the Ireland Open at RCD (Royal County Down) last year. I experienced this and I played much better.
“So, you know, all these experiences I have had, hopefully, I will stand as well for Portrush. And I have to transform the loved ones missed into positive rather than negative points.”
But there is an admission that goes to the heart of McILroy’s discomfort when it comes to trying to succeed in the tournaments he wants to win the most. He never shouted spotlights, but too often, it made him flash.
“I feel like I have always had trouble playing at home, nothing more than in Portrush in 2019,” he said.
“But I slowly start to learn to overcome the mental fatigue of the week and the expectations and everything else, and try to protect myself in my own little cocoon and take care of my business.
“People will say that I may be a slow learner, but at least I learn and go forward.”
Thus, a master still itchs to scratch, a PGA in his happiest hunting field in America and a home championship is on the horizon.
And then there is the chance to do something extraordinary in the European team of the Ryder Cup of Luke Donald in Bethpage in New York in September.
“You have heard me say so many times, but one of the greatest achievements of the game right now is to win a Ryder Cup outside and we have the opportunity to do this this year,” -It declared.
“I think there is one thing that holds the service at home, which we were able to do in a fairly coherent way. It is a huge task (far from home).
“It’s a very strong American team, a very partisan crowd. But we have a wonderful captain and we are going to have a wonderful team and we savor the challenge.”
Whisper it, but 2025 could be quite the year.
You can listen to the entire interview with Rory McILroy from 10:00 pm GMT on Tuesday January 28 on BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC seems that AIIN CARTER previews the season alongside Trish Johnson.
