Rory McIlroy has outlined his three goals for the rest of his career with an elusive green jacket at the Masters top of his agenda heading into 2025.
When the 35-year-old drives down Magnolia Lane at Augusta National this April, he will enter the eleventh year of his hunt for a fifth major championship title as he looks to finally complete the career grand slam.
It seemed unthinkable that McIlroy would be now over a decade since his last major triumph after becoming the only man outside of Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus to win four of golf’s big prizes before the age of 25 in 2014.
Yet here we are again. A decade of near misses have followed, most notably at the 2022 Open Championship and 2023 and 2024 US Open Championships.
McIlroy’s loss to Bryson DeChambeau at Pinehurst last year would have finished off many a player, but the Holywood man keeps coming back and he is determined to ensure the script of his career has more major championships and the career grand slam.
He suffered heartbreak at the Masters in 2011 when leading by four shots heading into the final round and despite a runner-up finish in 2022, his best chance of claiming an elusive green jacket came in 2018 before more final day disappointment.
Still, to this point, McIlroy has achieved more than your average player could dream of and he is still aiming for more career defining moments which include an Olympic medal at LA 2028 and an away Ryder Cup victory, which along with a Masters win could be achieved this year.
“Winning The Masters, winning an Olympic medal and another away Ryder Cup, they are my three goals for the rest of my career,” McIlroy revealed to BBC Sport.
“I’ve realised that all I can control is myself. What’s right for me right now is to fully focus on myself and to get the best out of myself and get back to winning the biggest tournaments in the world.
“I’ve been agonisingly close for the past few years, without being able to get it done and that that is the main focus of this year. All of my practice, all of my prep, even the tournaments that I’m playing, it’s all geared towards being ready for those four events.
“Augusta is Augusta. I’ve gone through my stats and there are a couple of things that were pointed out to me that I could definitely get better at – certain little shots around the greens.”
McIlroy begins his PGA TOUR campaign at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am this week and he will surely be a key member of Luke Donald’s European Ryder Cup side at Bethpage Black in September.
Winning an away Ryder Cup has become the almost impossible task in recent years with Europe the last team to taste victory on away soil and even that took a “miracle” at Medinah in 2012.
The United States are without an away victory since 1993 at the Belfry so McIlroy knows that an away win for either side in the contest would be historic and break a mould of host dominance.
“You have heard me say this so many times, but one of the greatest achievements in the game right now is to win an away Ryder Cup and we have an opportunity to do that this year,” McIlroy added.
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