The Year of Rory McIlroy

Scottie Scheffler, by virtually every measure, is the best golfer on the planet. In an era where it is harder than ever to separate from your peers, Scheffler won six PGA Tour events this season (two of them major championships) and led the PGA Tour in 28 different statistical categories. His scoring average in 2025 (68.13) was better than any golfer in history besides Tiger Woods in 2000. He is just 29 years old and entering the prime of his career. The future feels like it belongs to him. We are still riding the wave of one of the all-time greats, and it likely hasn’t even crested yet. 

Why, then, does it feel like Rory McIlroy was still the story of 2025? 

It’s an interesting debate, and one we’ve been having throughout the fall. In a year where Scheffler appears to have solidified his status as the best golfer of his era, McIlroy reaffirmed that he is the straw that stirs the drink in professional golf. You can love him, you can loathe him, you can doubt him, you can feel conflicted about him, but you cannot turn away when he is over the ball or behind the microphone. You can argue, without much pushback, that Scheffler’s year was better than McIlroy’s. But it would be hard to argue that Scheffler’s year was as interesting as McIlroy’s. 

In 2025, Rory McIlroy experienced just about everything — a win at Pebble Beach, a place he called one of golf’s cathedrals; a dramatic Monday playoff win at the Players Championship; a cathartic win at the Masters that was a decade in the making and earned him the distinction of becoming just the sixth golfer to claim the career Grand Slam; a running feud with the media that was borne out of his driver being deemed non-conforming during testing at the PGA Championship; an emotional homecoming to Northern Ireland for the Open Championship; an emotionally-draining, at-times-controversial performance as he helped Europe win a Ryder Cup on American soil; a dramatic victory in the Irish Open; a seventh Race to Dubai title, putting him just one behind Colin Montgomerie's record of eight. 

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Along the way, McIlroy reminded us of why he is the sport’s most compelling figure. He was, at various points: funny, stubborn, vulnerable, frustrating, thoughtful, smart, annoying, contradictory, prophetic, smug, reflective, inspirational, and honest. No one held our attention quite like he did, and judging by the ratings, that was true throughout the world of golf. 

The future likely belongs to Scheffler. (Bryson DeChambeau or Jon Rahm might disagree, but they’ll have their chance to prove it in 2026). But 2025 still belonged to McIlroy. We wanted to take a final look back at his year and reflect on the most memorable moments before we fully turn the page to 2026. 

On Monday, Joseph LaManga looked ahead to the Australian Open, McIlroy’s final tournament of the year, and what his presence at this year’s event might mean for international golf. On Tuesday, Adam Woodard will look back at McIlroy’s dramatic shots into the 15th green on Saturday and Sunday at the Masters, and explain why we’ll still be talking about them a decade from now. On Wednesday, our staff will take turns sharing our favorite McIlroy memory from 2025, some of them historic, some of them irreverent. On Thursday, Brendan Porath will revisit the Irish Open, and unpack why it was maybe McIlroy’s most underrated triumph of the year. On Friday, Kevin Van Valkenburg will write about the 2025 Masters, and why we’ll never experience anything like it again in our lifetimes. 

There will be plenty of things to say about Scheffler in the months and years ahead. But the wild ride Rory took us on in 2025 deserves a curtain call before we flip the calendar.