PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – There is a warning sign at box 18 at Pebble Beach that may also serve as a course tip.
“YOU DON’T STAY IN LOVE.”
The creativity of Pebble Beach is extreme. Rough rocks and scary surf and big dunes and little green. Of the many skills required to succeed here, to decide perhaps the most important. On the 18th tee box and the winner’s celebration on the 18th green, there is no sitting on the fence.
Rory McIlroy knows this better than most. Anyone with a little golf in their soul understood what McIlroy meant last February, when he suggested that winning at Pebble Beach for the first time meant something more.
“There are a few that I would call the cathedrals of golf,” McIlroy said at the time. “Here, Augusta, St. Andrews – maybe a few you can add in there. I had a big zero on all of them coming in here. To hit one at Pebble is pretty cool.”
Of course, anyone with a little golf in their soul also knows what came after that victory at Pebble Beach: a third career win at the Players Championship, and a game-changing, sporting, Grand Slam-clinching victory at the Masters.
When the tomes are written, that final victory at Augusta will be remembered as kicking the door on McIlroy. But it can be said that it is his first the 2025 victory, at Pebble Beach, broke the deadlock.
“I’m a big patriot of the game and I remember every tournament that’s ever been played here,” McIlroy said at the time, foreshadowing the shocking history he would soon make at Augusta. “And to add my name to this list is great.”
Now, in 2026, the historian has been returned to the library. With no more majors to win and no more road Ryder Cups to win, McIlroy was forced to reset his goals. And, in doing so, you had the opportunity to face a new question: What are the next “bishoprics”?
On Friday at Pebble Beach, the same day McIlroy shot five under to enter the weekend, the Grand Slam winner faced the question for the first time.
“There are places I’ve never won that I’d like to,” said McIlroy. “St. Andrews is one of them. Riviera next week is another. Riviera and Muirfield Village are two. Great golf courses but also who’s hosting the events. You know, Tiger and Jack. I managed to win Bay Hill but not while Arnie was around, so it would be nice to win both those tournaments while both those guys are still alive and kicking.”
And perhaps the biggest victory that stands out on McIlroy’s list? Only the site of a major tournament is less accessible: the home of golf.
“There are a lot of golf courses that have a lot of history. There are a lot of old US Open sites that have had great things happen,” McIlroy said. “Yes, this is one, Augusta was the other, and the last one I think – not the last one, but the biggest one on the list might be St. Andrews.”
McIlroy will likely have at least one chance to seal a major victory at the Old Course early in his playing career. That will come in 2027, when the golf world returns to St. Andrews at the 155th Open shortly after his 38th birthday.
These are champagne aspirations to be sure, but it would be foolish to discount them as insignificant. As McIlroy learned at Pebble Beach last February (and again at Augusta National in April), success often comes repeatedly.
And when it comes to choosing her spots? Of course, McIlroy is not always on the phone.
