What does Rory McIlroy have after a dream season? 1 great desire

Rory McIlroy’s PGA Tour year began with a triumphant walk down the 18th fairway at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, where he delivered an important message to caddy Harry Diamond.

“Start as you mean to go,” said McIlroy, on his way to winning that week.

McIlroy then won the Players before completing a career Grand Slam at the Masters. A period of illness marred his summer before the Royal Open at Royal Portrush which resulted in a “dream” season which included an Irish Open win, an Away Ryder Cup win and the BBC Sports Personality of the Year trophy.

This year has had it probably everything for McIlroy, who has had to deal with the current question for months: What’s next?

That question loomed large over his summer, but as the Open progressed, McIlroy seemed to have found a way to enjoy a dream come true while refocusing on his professional career. The goal and focus of the next phase of Rory McIlroy’s career is to win important tournaments at important venues. What’s left is something else.

At the weekend, McIlroy won another award, picking up his third RTE Sportsperson of the Year award and looked to the future while admitting the hard truth about life after a season where he had everything he wanted.

“You know, I think mentally, I have to be relieved that 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 have a lot of great years ahead of me. But you know, no matter what I do going forward, I’ll be able to win my first Masters. And I’m really excited about that.”

“And I enjoyed the opportunity to bring the green jacket to the world and show it off. It’s been a great year, but I still think I have a lot more to achieve. So I’m still ambitious.”

After a disappointing US Open at Oakmont, McIlroy said he is working on finding a new mountain to climb. The Home Open at Royal Portrush was easy, but there will be more to come. After checking the Masters and the Away Ryder Cup off his to-do list, one mountain looms larger than the others.

“I think in this part of my career, I want those, you know, big tournaments and big moments,” McIlroy said. “The big golf tournaments are one of those. The Ryder Cups. And then, you know, obviously the Olympics. I’ve tasted two Olympics now, Tokyo and Paris, and I’ve come very close to medaling both times. So in 2028 in LA I’d like to give myself another chance to get on that stage and bring a medal back to Ireland.”

As McIlroy heads into the next phase of his career, he’s taking inspiration from the man who fought him for the green jacket in April.

“I was really inspired by what Justin Rose did in Memphis this year,” said McIlroy at the DP World Tour Championship. “And what he did in the Ryder Cup. And I look at what he’s doing, you know, playing at this level at 45 years old. I’d like to be able to say – hopefully I’ll be able to do the same thing in 10 years.”

Rose called this phase of his career “Indian Summer.” He’s not sure how long it will take, but he has carded two runner-up finishes in the last five majors, a FedEx St. Jude in Memphis this year and was again a key player in the European Ryder Cup victory. Rose has poured everything into keeping her game sharp and her body healthy.

It’s easy to forget that Rory McIlroy was doing it this of this level almost twenty years. His game has had little ebbs and flows, but Rory McIlroy has been Rory McIlroy for almost 20 years straight. It’s a wonderful thing that often gets lost in the everyday conversation surrounding the current golf needle.

“What are you looking at?” [Novak] Djokovic did at Wimbledon in the last couple of weeks,” McIlroy said at the Genesis Scottish Open in July, “or what some of those guys did or someone like Cristiano Ronaldo is doing at 40 years old, or Tom Brady in American football; that piece of longevity is something that probably isn’t talked about enough.

“Because once you get to a certain level, I feel like the journey to the top is almost – it’s not – I won’t say it’s easy, but you have momentum and you ride that wave to the top. And then when you get there, yeah, it takes a lot of work, if not more work, to stay there. Because I think about my career before I won this 201 major championship at Scott, I never won this major championship Scheffler.”

McIlroy’s goal is to remain Rory McIlroy for another 10 to 15 years. In order to do that, he knows that changes are needed to stay fresh and timeless.

“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 scale back my schedule so that – you know, it’s weird – I want to play a little bit more every year to play. More in the future, you know?”

The reduced schedule fits McIlroy’s vision of focusing solely on major tournaments, major events, iconic courses and world-class golf.

After a dream year that included a search for the middle ground, McIlroy knows what’s on the horizon and has a plan for how to get there. Nothing can top his 2025, but McIlroy isn’t looking for the next one. He has a clear idea of ​​what life after the dream period looks like and, as it turns out, it is not so different from the previous life – the mountains he plans to climb are different, but the vision is not great.

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