by Matt Hardisty
There is no question that the moment of Rory McIlroy's, golf’s and perhaps even sport’s year took place when he knocked in that putt to become a Masters champion and complete the career Grand Slam.
The moment that followed, of McIlroy dropping to his knees and allowing his head to fall forward towards the hallowed turf of the 18th green at Augusta National before letting out a guttural roar and pump of his fists – saw him physically able to release over a decade’s worth of pressure, pain and expectation.
Yet it is only part of the story of one of the best seasons of his career.
McIlroy arrived at Augusta National in April in possibly the best shape of his career after a remarkable start to the year.
He started his season on the DP World Tour at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic and it was clear before a ball was even struck that legacy was on his mind.
“I understand that the window is very slowly closing, and I want to make sure I do everything I can to have the best career I possibly can,” he said at a pre-tournament press conference at Emirates Golf Club.
A tie for fourth in the desert was followed by a victory two weeks later on the PGA TOUR at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, where he held off the challenge of great friend Shane Lowry and another Ryder Cup-team-mate in Justin Rose.
Top 20s in his next two events maintained momentum and he arrived in Florida for the PGA TOUR’s flagship PLAYERS Championship brimming with confidence.
It was not an orthodox week at TPC Sawgrass, but McIlroy still prevailed after a three-hole Monday play-off against JJ Spaun and established himself as, even in the era of Scottie Scheffler, the form player on the planet a month out from the Masters.
“It's just continuing to do the same things,” he said of his preparations for Augusta National.
“I'm feeling really comfortable with how I'm flighting my ball in the wind. I feel like I'm always trying to refine what I have. I'm certainly a proponent of if it's not broken don't try to fix it. Everything feels like it's in good working order at the minute.
“Just keep practising and doing the right things and practising the right habits, and day after day, week after week, they all add up to days like today.”
The question of whether or not to play in the build-up to the season’s opening Major is one that has been asked of McIlroy for many years and this season he did, finishing fifth at the Texas Children’s Houston Open two weeks before.
So the time came once again for McIlroy to drive down Magnolia Lane and, for a few days at least, become perhaps the most scrutinised sportsperson on the planet.
Ever since he drove down Magnolia Lane in 2015 hunting the Grand Slam for the first time, maybe even since his tee shot on the tenth in 2011 that ended his chances having held a four-shot lead, the Green Jacket, at least to many observers, had haunted McIlroy.
“I think I've carried that burden since August 2014. It's nearly 11 years,” he said in his winner’s press conference.
“And not just about winning my next Major, but the career Grand Slam. You know, trying to join a group of five players to do it, you know, watching a lot of my peers get Green Jackets in the process.
“Yeah, it's been difficult, and I've tried to approach this tournament with the most positive attitude each and every time that I've shown up, and I think just the sort of cumulative experience that I've gained coming back here each and every year, I just I feel like I get a little more comfortable with the shot needed. I talked about it at the start of the week, but you know, there's talking about it and actually doing it.
“It was a heavy weight to carry, and thankfully now I don't have to carry it and it frees me up and I know I'm coming back here every year, which is lovely.”
The Northern Irishman, to his credit, was philosophical about the whole situation.
“At a certain point in someone's life, someone doesn't want to fall in love because they don't want to get their heart broken,” he said at a pre-tournament press conference. “People, I think, instinctively as human beings, we hold back sometimes because of the fear of getting hurt, whether that's a conscious decision or subconscious decision. I think I was doing that on the golf course a little bit for a few years.
“But I think once you go through that, once you go through those heartbreaks as I call them, or disappointments, you get to a place where you remember how it feels and you wake up the next day and you're like, ‘yeah, life goes on, it's not as bad as I thought it was going to be’.”
An opening 72 left McIlroy seven shots off the lead but back-to-back rounds of 66 had him two ahead heading into the final day.
A bogey on the 18th in round four can only have prompted thoughts of ‘here we go again’ but McIlroy responded in perfect style, finding position A1 on the fairway in the play-off before putting his approach to four feet and joining Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods among the golfing immortals.
In the weeks that followed, McIlroy’s form took a relative dip, but he still managed to make the cut in the US PGA Championship and U.S. Open before losing out in a final day battle to Chris Gotterup at the Genesis Scottish Open.
A top ten at The Open on home soil at Royal Portrush then provided some redemption after he had missed the cut at the same venue in 2019.
"I tried as best as I could to keep my emotions in check, especially walking up the last there and that reception," he said after finishing seven shots behind a once-again dominant Scheffler.
"It's been an awesome week. I've gotten everything I wanted out of this week apart from a Claret Jug and that's just because one person was just a little bit better than the rest of us.
"I feel so thankful and just so lucky that I get to do this, I get to do this in front of this crowd.”
Following the FedEx Cup playoffs, McIlroy’s attention turned back across the Atlantic to the Back 9 and the DP World Tour Play-Offs but there was still a mission left to be accomplished stateside.
After playing every session of every Ryder Cup from 2020 to 2018, McIlroy sat out a session in the 2021 humbling only to bounce back by claiming four points in Europe’s victory in Rome.
Since 2014, the biennial spectacular had fallen into a pattern of comfortable wins for home sides and with a vociferous crowd expected at Bethpage Black and, according to the World Rankings at least, a dominant United States to face, September’s Ryder Cup was expected by many to be the same.
McIlroy had long-since declared that winning an away Ryder Cup was the hardest task in golf and upon arriving back on home soil for the Amgen Irish Open, he revealed just what a New York victory would mean.
“Obviously I'd love to win this week,” he said. “I'd love to win next week at Wentworth. But the one thing for me this year to reassess my goals, an away Ryder Cup, after everything that's happened this year, would be... if I did have a better year in the game, I'd love to see it.
“If we were to win an away Ryder Cup with everything else that I've been through this year, 2025 would be the best year of my career.”
Before taking on Bethpage Black, however, The K Club had to be tackled and after coming up just short 12 months earlier, McIlroy was chasing a second title at his home open.
He entered the final round four shots off the lead but produced one of the moments and roars of the season, holing from nearly 30 feet for eagle on the 72nd hole to force a play-off with Joakim Lagergren and send the huge home crowds into absolute raptures.
RORY MCILROY!!!! ☘️#AmgenIrishOpen pic.twitter.com/dXPul6ujk5
— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) September 7, 2025
It took three trips up the last but when Lagergren found the water, the stage was then set for McIlroy to claim a second DP World Tour win of the season.
"To do what I did earlier in the year and then to come home and win my national open, no matter what happens for the rest of the year, that's a pretty cool year - 2025's going to be one of the best, if not the best, of my career,” he reiterated after his win.
"But we're not finished yet, I've got a big week next week at Wentworth and then obviously everybody's looking forward to the Ryder Cup."
A top 20 at the BMW PGA Championship was quickly followed by a practice trip to Bethpage and soon the waiting was over as golf took over the global sporting agenda for three days in New York.
A successful partnership with Tommy Fleetwood had been established two years prior and the Fleetwood Mac pairing once again combined to seal two thumping wins in the foursomes.
The four-balls were not quite as comfortable as the home crowds lived up to expectations but alongside Lowry, McIlroy claimed another 1½ points contributing to a 11½-4½ European lead heading into the singles.
McIlroy’s defeat to Scheffler on Sunday was one of six Europe experienced as they took just one full point but five halved matches were enough to get them over the line for a historic victory.
“Extremely proud to be a part of this team,” said McIlroy. “I'm extremely proud of every single one of the players, the vice captains, the captain, all the back room support staff. This was an unbelievable collective effort.
“As soon as we won in Rome we turned our attention to trying to do something that everyone thought was pretty impossible to do, not just win in America but win here in New York. It's just been an amazing week.”
In the space of six months, McIlroy had won the Masters to complete the career Grand Slam, his home open and an away Ryder Cup, but his work was far from done.
A top 30 on his first trip to India for the DP World India Championship was followed by a remarkable tenth top three in 14 appearances at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship and now he arrives in Dubai chasing more history.
Should McIlroy convert his lead in the Race to Dubai into another Harry Vardon Trophy he will have won four in row - a feat matched only by Colin Montgomerie in the DP World Tour era - he will have surpassed Seve Ballesteros’ total of seven and be just one short of matching Montgomerie’s all-time record of eight.
"Hopefully these season-long awards are something that just come along because you've won some big tournaments along the way,” said McIlroy ahead of the DP World Tour Championship.
"So yeah, I guess you could say I'm still chasing that, but I think that's just more a by-product of playing the good golf that I know that I can."
The AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, the PLAYERS, the Masters, the Amgen Irish Open and the Ryder Cup.
To say McIlroy has “won some big tournaments along the way” must put him in line for another trophy: understatement of the season.
Come Sunday night, regardless of result, he will be able to reflect on a year of which he will never see the like again.
But we have four more rounds to go – and 2026 is just around the corner.
