From oh, so close to too close for comfort. From a golf ball lipping out to settling to the middle of the bottom of the cup. After years of experiencing one grueling defeat after another, Rory McIlroy’s fortunes have started to turn on golf’s biggest stages.
The winds have changed: They are fully at his back, and his sails have started to billow as he charts the last leg of his course towards the finale of perhaps the greatest season of his already-remarkable career.
Claiming his 20th DP World Tour victory on Sunday at the K Club and his second Irish Open title, McIlroy flipped the tournament on its head with an eagle putt on the 72nd hole to force a playoff with Sweden’s Joakim Lagergren. It brought the Irish contingent to its feet. Fathers and sons hugged and roared in unison as McIlroy’s fist punched through the thick countryside air. It brought a sound reserved only for one of their own — the greatest one at that.
It also brought McIlroy back to a moment from just last year when the energy could not have been more different. It was the 72nd hole in the same tournament 12 months earlier where he was tasked with navigating a similar putt: make and force a playoff, miss and walk home empty-handed.
At Royal County Down, no less. Roughly an hour drive from his native Holywood, Northern Ireland, McIlroy faced a much shorter putt and missed. The trophy slipped through his grasp as winner Rasmus Højgaard raced through the finish line and left McIlroy in his wake.
“I guess the thing going through my head when I was looking at the putt was the putt I had at Royal County Down last year on 18 to try to get in a playoff with Rasmus,” McIlroy recalled, “but it was an easy putt. It was uphill; it was right-to-left. I could be aggressive with it. I could have a go at it. So, I picked my line. I’d left a few putts short today. I just told myself, ‘Just get this one to the hole, give it a chance.’ It was nice to see it go right in the middle.”
McIlroy didn’t miss his chance this time. Three playoff holes later, the 36-year-old had his hands on his fourth trophy of the season. One year after a campaign that was remembered by near misses — including his runner-up results at the U.S. Open, Irish Open and BMW PGA Championship across a nine-tournament stretch — McIlroy’s 2025 has been inherently different.
The meaning, the look, the feel — all of it.. The putts have lipped in, like the 4-foot tickler on the 18th green at TPC Sawgrass to solidify his spot in the playoff with J.J. Spaun. The tide has largely turned his way, even in the midst of stormy Sundays like the one at Augusta National when he clinched the career grand slam by winning the Masters and slipping on the green jacket.
The nervous faces of onlookers don’t expect the cruel miss but rather the jubilation that follows a make. Like a ticking time bomb, they are waiting to explode.
“I think the more and more you get yourself in these positions, the more comfortable you are,” McIlroy said. “I’m not always in a situation like we had on the back nine where there’s three or four of us in with a chance. I always feel like I always put myself in those positions and be able to find a way to get it done.”
There have been weird moments, sure; every season has them. But there has been a balance reminiscent of the man’s own golf swing in 2025. It has helped him win his four tournaments (three of which have come courtesy of extra holes), and it aided him mightily in his return to Royal Portrush, even if not in victorious fashion.
Inside the ropes, McIlroy has juggled aggression in key moments alongside the need to be conservative like a member of a traveling circus. Inside his mind, he has maintained an appreciation for what is happening around him while not letting it consume him.
It’s a difficult tightrope to walk, one which he has fallen off before, but in 2025, McIlroy has shown a little breeze isn’t enough to knock his balance out of whack.
“I didn’t [get a reception like this at Augusta National],” McIlroy said just off the 18th green at the K Club. “Hopefully, we get a bit of it in a few weeks’ time at the Ryder Cup. But this is absolutely incredible. I love coming home. I love playing in this atmosphere. …Moments like this, these are the things you’re going to remember well after your career is over. This is a really special day.”