A look back through Rory McIlroy’s pro golf career.
Rory McIlroy has had an enviable golf career. He turned pro in 2007, joined the PGA Tour in 2010 and finished his first season with a tour victory.
Fast forward more than a decade later, and now-33-year-old McIlroy has 23 PGA Tour wins — including at the U.S. Open, the British Open and the Players Championship — along with being the FedExCup champion in 2016, 2019 and 2022.
Although McIlroy finished 2022 as the world No. 1, he’s now ranked second behind Scottie Scheffler, the 2022 Masters champion, with one win so far this season.
Here’s a look at McIlroy through the years, starting with his debut on the PGA Tour.
Netflix worked wonders for F1 with its documentary series “Formula 1: Drive to Survive” and now the streaming company has a new, similar series coming out next month on the PGA Tour and the trailer looks pretty darn awesome.
What’s going to make this series so interesting, of course, is that they picked a heck of a year to do a behind-the-scenes look inside the world of men’s professional golf thanks to all the controversy surrounding LIV Golf and the number of well-known players who made the jump to the Suadi-funded league.
This show, which comes out on Feb. 15, is going to be a must watch for golf fans and for anyone who loves juicy, behind-the-scenes content filled with drama and lots of honesty from star players.
Here’s the trailer:
“You picked a hell of a year to start following the PGA Tour.”
“I’m wishing Tiger, Rory, JT, and Jordan all the best.”
Phil Mickelson was a stalwart of The Match franchise. He played Tiger Woods in the original at the Wynn in Las Vegas — where he was victorious. He partnered with Tom Brady but lost to Woods and Peyton Manning in the second edition. Mickelson then paired with Charles Barkley and beat Steph Curry and Manning. However, in Match IV, he and Brady lost to Aaron Rodgers and Bryson DeChambeau.
If you’re scoring at home, that makes him 2-2. Not awful.
He took to Twitter to tell his followers he’s excited to watch and that it’ll “be a fun, funny and insightful version,” and he’s “wishing Tiger, Rory, JT, and Jordan all the best.”
I’m proud to have been a part of the creation of The Match. Today will be a fun,funny and insightful version and I’m wishing Tiger,Rory,JT,and Jordan all the best. I’ll be watching it on TNT and I hope you will too.
Rory McIlroy wasn’t the only golfer to win a boatload of money at the PGA Tour Championship.
Rory McIlory has spent the past few months being the face of the PGA Tour in it’s battle against LIV Golf.
On Sunday, he battled for himself and roared back to win the PGA Tour Championship and the FedEx Cup, which was worth a cool $18 million bucks. This is his third FedEx Cup title of his career and was a perfect end to what has been a great year for one of the best players in the world.
Scottie Scheffler started the tournament with a 2-stroke lead and had a six-shot leading going into the final round but struggled down the stretch and finished in a tie for second one shot behind McIlroy.
Let’s look at the top 10 money winners from the FedEx Cup championship.
The golf world had been waiting for a long time to hear the names of the players who will be playing in the Saudi-backed LIV Golf events/tour and late Tuesday night that news was finally released, with Dustin Johnson being the biggest name of the group.
While DJ, who is a total bore, was a bit of a surprise, most of the other names were not. Lee Westwood, Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter, Talor Gooch and a few others are on the list of guys that won’t have anyone trying to find these events on TV when, or if, they are aired.
Rory McIlroy has long been on the side of the PGA Tour while the speculation of a new league has been going on and he had a perfect response to the news on Wednesday:
Rory McIlroy is one of the many big-name golfers competing in the Olympics this week and while he finished his first round with a 2-under, 69 that has him in the top 20, lots of fans spent the night talking about Rory’s head.
You see, golf fans like myself are weird and when we watch golf we can get thrown off by little things that don’t matter all that much.
Like what hats players are wearing.
But in last night’s first round, golf fans were talking about McIlroy and how it was weird to see him not wearing a hat. He wears a Nike hat every time he tees it up on the PGA Tour but in the Olympics he’s gone hatless.
Here’s why:
The reason for hatless Rory:
“My head is so small that I have to get Nike to make me custom hats, so whenever I’m in a team event and the hats aren’t custom, they’re all too big.”
I did not see that reason coming at all. I also have the opposite problem of Rory – my head is so darn big that I look like a dumb idiot in hats so I go team visor when I play.
But enough about me. Let’s get back to Rory and what fans had to say about this.
Palmer, who famously drove the green at the par-4 first hole in the final round of the 1960 U.S. Open en route to victory, lived to go for broke and his advice for competitors at the tournament bearing his name was to play boldly.
One day after DeChambeau dazzled fans with a 370-yard blast at the par-5, sixth hole at Bay Hill Club and Lodge, he crushed one even farther.
This time, DeChambeau took two deep breaths and smashed driver 377 yards. His ball cleared the water at the double-dogleg easily and bounced through the fairway into a fairway bunker. He had 88 yards left to the hole.
That was 50 yards longer than the previous longest drive on Sunday, a 327-yard poke by Brendan Steele.
Lee Westwood had the unenviable task of following DeChambeau’s blast and hit one 306 yards along a safer line, leaving him 256 yards from the hole. That was only 168 yards farther from the hole than DeChambeau. Westwood celebrated being dry off the tee by raising both arms to the sky, mimicking DeChambeau’s celebration on Saturday. As he walked up the fairway, Westwood knocked knuckles with DeChambeau.
Architect Dick Wilson created one of the great risk-reward par-5s, where competitors get to choose how much of the water they want to bite off. The farther left you aim, the shorter the approach shot. However, the sixth hole can bite both ways.
A few groups earlier, Rory McIlroy, 7 under at the time and still in the thick of the trophy hunt, rinsed two tee shots in the water. The Northern Irishman is one of the best drivers of the ball in golf and he had smoked one 361 yards on Saturday. He had enough in the tank to nearly match DeChambeau, but under the gun on Sunday, he fired multiple blanks. McIlroy did hit his third tee shot 324 yards and stick his sixth shot close and salvaged a double bogey, but it essentially ended his hopes of becoming a two-time champ at Arnie’s place.
Rory McIlroy hit two tee shots into the water at No. 6.
As much as DeChambeau’s power game stole the show this week, he failed to fully take advantage of his prodigious drive. He came up short of the green with his second shot, just as he had the day before. But he pitched to 4 feet and converted for the birdie to keep pace with Westwood, and remain tied for the lead at 11 under.
DeChambeau never did aim for the sixth green during the tournament, which would have required a carry of 342 yards. But he recorded three birdies on the hole, taking advantage of his power and whipping the reduced crowds this week at Bay Hill into a frenzy.
The sixth hole at Bay Hill showed once again why it is one of the coolest holes on the PGA Tour. It gave us Victor Perez making an 11 on Saturday and DeChambeau’s smoke show. Arnie would’ve loved every bit of it.
Collin Morikawa is looking for his first win since winning the PGA Championship at The Concession headed into Sunday.
BRADENTON, Fla. – The rest of the field was getting a headache looking at the scoreboards during the third round of the World Golf Championships-Workday Championship.
At the top was Collin Morikawa, who was giving The Concession Golf Club a concussion. The reigning PGA champ was battering the diabolical course that drives most players batty with eight birdies in his first 12 holes and headed to the 13th tee with a five-shot lead.
But Morikawa limped home with two bogeys and was forced to make two gut-check par putts to remain in the lead. Thus, heads have cleared and Sunday’s final-round no longer looks to have the makings of a runaway.
Morikawa, who made nine birdies in his second round, still signed for a 5-under-par 67 and his once imposing lead is down to two through 54 holes.
At 15 under, Morikawa is two shots clear of Billy Horschel (69) and Brooks Koepka (70), who battled through a neck injury to remain in contention.
Webb Simpson (69) is three back and Rory McIlroy (66) and Patrick Reed (69) will start four behind. Four others are at 10 under.
“Got off to a really good start and just kept rolling birdie after birdie, really didn’t think about it, game was playing really boring, playing simple, hitting fairways and hitting greens,” Morikawa said.
But he three-putted for bogey on the par-5 13th and he never got it going again.
“I just kind of psyched myself out and in my head it was going to be a tough hole, but that doesn’t mean I should be three‑putting, doesn’t mean I should leave my putt five feet short,” Morikawa said. “Tomorrow I’m just going to stay committed for every hole, every shot I hit and we’ll see what happens.
“There’s so many positives to take from those first 12, but I have a lot to learn from those last six. I didn’t play great the last six, but a lot to learn from heading into tomorrow. Just to kind of clear my head to get ready for the 18‑hole grind.”
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Koepka hopes his neck feels better in the final round.
“It sucks,” he said of the injury. “Doesn’t feel any better. Just one of those things, I’ve had it for a long time, so I’m ready for an off week next week. Go get some treatment here now and get worked on in the morning, and from there just hope for the best. Hopefully it loosens up.
“Have to go through a whole bottle of Aleve and Advil just trying to make it for two days. It’s annoying because I spotted a few shots just to the field, but it is what it is.”
A few shots can disappear quickly at The Concession. McIlroy said the course yields a lot of birdies but it can bite you very quickly even without doing much wrong. Or as Reed said, it’s definitely a course where no lead is big enough.
McIlroy gave himself an outside chance despite his swing still being a work in progress as he tries to win for the first time since the fall of 2019.
“I’m getting it around, put it that way,” McIlroy said. “I don’t feel like I’m flushing it by any means, but it’s a work in progress and I’m seeing some good signs, which I guess is encouraging.
“After I made birdies on 7 and 8 and I got to 6 under for the tournament, I said to Harry (Diamond, his caddie), ‘Let’s get to 10 by the end of the day and let’s see where that leaves us.’”
Rory McIlroy during the third round of the 2021 World Golf Championships-Workday Championship at The Concession. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)
McIlroy made four birdies and an eagle coming home.
“I shot one better than that,” he said. “I think if you’re within three or four, you still feel like you’ve got a reasonable chance.”
Morikawa has his best chance of winning for the first time since the PGA.
He had been scuffling a tad since leaving TPC Harding Park in San Francisco with the Wanamaker Trophy. While he’s still the No. 6 player in the world, he had nearly as many missed cuts – three – as top-10s – four in 13 starts since the PGA Championship. He also had four other finishes north of 40th.
This led Morikawa to chance to a saw putting grip, especially seeing as the stats showed he was in the 200s on the PGA Tour in Strokes Gained: Putting. The move didn’t work in last week’s Genesis Invitational but it’s doing just fine this week.
And he got a chipping lesson from Paul Azinger that has helped his confidence.
“I’m feeling well with my irons, I’m feeling good, but when I do miss, I’m able to make up‑and‑downs and that’s kind of the best feeling you want to have when you’re staying aggressive with 18 more,” Morikawa said.
As for his putting, he said he’ll likely make more adjustment but right now he loves his new stroke. As far as the lead, he knows it’s not very big.
“Anything can happen,” he said. “I know all the guys behind me, they’re very capable of going low. That’s why I’ve got to be ready from hole 1 and be ready all the way through the round tomorrow.
“You’ve got to have a mind of a goldfish, right? You’ve got to be able to forget and forgive. So come tomorrow I’m sure there’s going to be a couple wayward shots or a bad shot here or there, but I’ve got to know that I’m still putting one foot forward in front of the other and trying to close out the tournament.”
Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau and Rory McIlroy highlight early commits to the WGC-Workday Championship at The Concession.
Officials of the 2021 World Golf Championships-Workday Championship, scheduled for Feb. 25-28 at The Concession Golf Club in Bradenton, Florida, have announced that several of the world’s top-ranked players have committed to play in the season’s first World Golf Championship event.
Workday, Inc., a provider of enterprise applications for finance and human resources, will be the title sponsor of the newly-named Workday Championship. COVID-19 forced the relocation of the tournament formerly known as the Mexico Championship to The Concession. In December, Workday signed a 10-year agreement to become the new presenting sponsor of the Memorial Tournament in Dublin, Ohio.
Among the top players from the PGA, Asian, European, Japan Golf and PGA Tour of Australasia tours who will be at The Concession include: world No. 1 and 2020 FedExCup champion Dustin Johnson, No. 2 Jon Rahm, No. 3 and 2017 FedExCup champion Justin Thomas, No. 4 Xander Schauffele, two-time FedExCup champion Rory Mcllroy, 2020 U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau, 2020 PGA Championship winner Collin Morikawa and defending champion Patrick Reed.
Players have until Friday at 5 p.m. ET to commit to the field. Those players not currently qualified can still join the field at The Concession by either moving inside the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking, or being among the top 10 in the FedExCup standings as of Monday, Feb. 22.
In 2022, Rory McIlroy will become the first international player to serve on the PGA Tour board as a player director.
The PGA Tour announced today that Rory McIlroy has been elected Chairman of the Player Advisory Council (PAC) by the Tour’s membership for the 2021 calendar year.
McIlroy, who prevailed over Russell Knox and Kevin Streelman in voting that ended February 11, will succeed Jordan Spieth as a player director on the PGA Tour Policy Board next year, serving a three-year term (2022-24). He will join James Hahn (2020-22), Charley Hoffman (2021-23) and Kevin Kisner (2020-22) on the Policy Board.
McIlroy, 31, of Northern Ireland, joined the Tour in 2010. When he assumes his role of player director in 2022, McIlroy will become the first international player to serve on the Policy Board, which dates back to the Tour’s first season in 1969.
“I think it’s important to me,” McIlroy said at the Waste Management Phoenix Open two weeks ago. “I feel like I’ve been on Tour long enough now that I sort of know the ins and outs of the goings-on of day-to-day Tour life and the business of the Tour, and I think I have some pretty good ideas.
“I think with this new strategic partnership, alliance with the European Tour, you know, knowing those guys as I do, you know, being close with the leadership of the PGA Tour over here, I think I could help in some ways. I think I could facilitate something.”
As the only major sports league without a union, the members of the Tour rely on its PAC and Policy Board to represent them on issues with the Tour commissioner and his staff.
“If I am elected, I would be very honored to do the job,” McIlroy added. “It’s something that I feel quite passionately about. Yeah, hopefully people see that and they vote for me. It would be an honor to represent the players on the advisory board.”
In November, the Tour announced that the 2020 Player Advisory Council would extend its term through 2021 due to the role the PAC played in navigating the Tour’s response to the pandemic.
McIlroy is considered one of the most thoughtful and articulate speakers among the players, but his new role may not bode well for his chances to win a major championship. The job is thought to be a time commitment that has taken players, such as Davis Love III, away from the job at hand of making history between the ropes. Stewart Cink (2009), Love (1997), Tom Lehman (1996) and Larry Mize (1987) are among the few to win a major during their tenures on the board in the last 35 years.
One former board member suggested that it would be a mistake for McIlroy to take up the responsibility of serving on the board. “If I gave any advice to these guys it’s to stay off of boards, stay out of charities and play golf, make history,” said the former player. “Do the rest of the noise amplification stuff later.”
Some players used to call it the curse of the player board. When told of its reputation, McIlroy seem unfazed.
“No, I didn’t know that,” he told Golfweek. “Usually the guys that have served haven’t been good enough to win majors. It’s hard to win majors, there are four a year. But I’m happy to do it. It’s a few meetings a year, it’s not that big of a time commitment. It’s definitely not an excuse for not winning a major.”
2021 Player Advisory Council
Ryan Armour
Paul Casey
David Hearn
Harry Higgs
Billy Horschel
Zach Johnson
Russell Knox
Anirban Lahiri
Peter Malnati
Rory McIlroy (Chairman)
Ryan Palmer
Jon Rahm
Kevin Streelman
Justin Thomas
Harold Varner III
Johnson Wagner
