Rory McIlroy has won three times in 2024 – twice on the PGA Tour and once on the DP World Tour – but even though majors are the currency on which a career like his trades, he still feels that there is enough time for him to transform what’s been an otherwise average year his standards.
“I certainly don’t want to sit up here and belittle my achievements at all this year and what I’ve done, but at the same time, yeah, I expect a certain standard from myself,” he told the press in Memphis where he is preparing for the first of the PGA Tour’s three-event FedEx Cup playoff series.
“Yeah, I’ve won a couple of times. I’ve had an opportunity to win a few more times than that and haven’t been able to get over the line. So I would have liked to have added a couple more to that win column.
“But as I said, there’s still three tournaments left in this PGA TOUR season. I think I’ve actually got eight or nine tournaments left this year, but three on the PGA TOUR, to turn an okay season into a very good one.
“I feel maybe a little similar to — even the three years that I’ve won the FedExCup, 2016 I came into the Playoffs I think in 36th and was able to win, but then ’19 and ’22 I was a little further up and a little closer to the lead.
“I think when the bulk of the season has come and gone and you’ve got this opportunity of three weeks to really, I guess, flip the script a little bit or change the narrative and what that season means, I think that’s a motivating factor, and part of the reason that I’ve probably played well in the Playoffs for the last three years.”
The world number three is making his PGA Tour return after representing Ireland in the Olympic Games in Paris, and though he put himself firmly in the mix for a medal – even Gold – on the back nine on Sunday, only to come up short thanks to finding the water on 15 at Le Golf National, it’s still a week that he’ll look back on fondly.
“Amazing,” was his response when asked to sum up the experience. “I played Tokyo with COVID and no one there and everything, so it was a different experience. But we played the practice rounds at the start of the week in France with no spectators just because they didn’t sell tickets for the practice rounds, and then you show up on Thursday and there’s 30,000 people at the golf course. It was very cool.
“I think to play in that atmosphere and in that environment, yeah, I said it at the end of the tournament, I think the Olympic Games is going to mean more and more to the game of golf as it goes along, going into ’28 in LA, ’32 in Brisbane, it’s only going to become more important. You see like what Novak Djokovic said; he said winning that Olympic gold was the biggest sporting achievement of his career. I’m pretty sure in 10 or 20 years’ time, someone in the world of golf may say that about an Olympic gold medal.”
While the FedEx Cup format, which culminates with a staggered leaderboard at the Tour Championship, continues to divide opinion amongst media and golfing fans, McIlroy himself is in favour of the format as he thinks it provides the best chance for final-round drama at East Lake.
“I love this format because if it wasn’t this format, then none of us would have a chance against Scottie because he’s so far ahead. So I really like this format,” he explained, before adding: “Is it the fairest reflection of who’s been the best player of the year? Probably not. But I think at this point we’re not in for totally fair, we’re in for entertainment and for trying to put on the best product we possibly can.
“Yeah, the first year that it was the starting strokes at TOUR Championship in 2019, I was able to win that one, and then in ’22 again. I like this format. It sort of feels like it’s a bit of a reset after the regular season. Everyone is not quite on a level playing field, but it feels a little more like that.”
The Scheffler versus Xander Schauffele debate for who’s had the best season was a one-sided affair until the latter overtook the former in the season’s major count with his win at Royal Troon, but after Scheffler added the Gold Medal in Paris, McIlroy doesn’t feel there is any debate as to which season he’d rather have.
“Scottie’s,” was his swift response. “I think winning the Masters, an Olympic gold medal, winning, whatever it is, six times, it’s pretty hard to top that.”
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