Rory McIlroy Earns Another Legacy Victory in Ireland

What an incredible year it has been for Rory McIlroy and continues to be. He started last week donning his green jacket in front of a massive home audience, and he punctuated it with his fourth title of the calendar year. The four wins aren’t too shabby: a signature event at Pebble Beach, a playoff at TPC Sawgrass, the fourth leg of his career grand slam at the Masters, and now his second career Irish Open.

With six holes remaining in regulation, McIlroy sat in a four-way tie for first before holing one of the fullest 360-degree lip-ins you’ll see on No. 13. Stepping onto the par-5 18th tee, McIlroy needed an eagle to tie Joakim Lagergren’s clubhouse lead. Naturally, he delivered. He buried a 30-footer with plenty of pace as the crowd erupted with one of the biggest roars of the golf season, redemption for the putt he missed at last year’s Irish Open.  

Both Lagergren and McIlroy birdied their first two playoff holes before Lagergren got a little aggressive on an approach shot that found the penalty area on the third playoff hole, a shot that was also met with applause from the Irish crowd.

“I love coming home. I love playing in this atmosphere,” an emotion-filled McIlroy said shortly after tapping in his birdie for the win. “Yeah, these are – moments like this, these are the things you're going to remember well after your career is over. This is a really special day.” As McIlroy went on to note, the remaining check box could be crossed off in a few weeks should the Europeans take down the Americans at Bethpage Black in the Ryder Cup.

Outside of being arguably the greatest European golfer to ever play the game and a career grand slam champion, McIlroy has made a concerted effort to boost the profile of national opens, which could end up becoming a significant part of his legacy. Back at the Open Championship, world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler indicated that at this phase of his life, traveling the world to play an international schedule “would be great” but is not his “priority nor responsibility.” McIlroy has taken a distinctly different tack toward building his schedule. “I've made it well known…what I think of national opens,” McIlroy stated in a press conference at the 2024 RBC Canadian Open. “I think that they're the oldest championships in our game and I think they're very, very important.”

With a slated appearance upcoming at the Australian Open, McIlroy continues to make good on his word to prioritize a few of golf’s oft-forgotten historic championships. Combined with McIlroy’s support, a recent announcement by Augusta National and the R&A to award major championship spots to winners of an additional six national opens could provide the foundation for national opens to steadily rise in stature.  

Is the current moment the start of legitimate momentum in building the prestige of national opens globally? Hard to say. A significant financial investment is required to get stars beyond McIlroy to leave the comforts of their primarily American homes. Still, Rory McIlroy is nearly single-handedly bringing life to tournaments that badly need stars like him to show up while adding prestigious hardware to the trophy case along the way.