Rory McIlroy ready to make up for lost time as condensed major schedule offers runway to capitalize

NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. — When The Players Championship was moved from May to March, and the PGA Championship was shifted from August to May, a window was revealed. While most on the outside looked through it and saw a condensed schedule with a rather anticlimactic end to the season, those on the inside saw an opportunity.

An opportunity to go on a run that could not only define seasons but ultimately careers.

Collin Morikawa claimed his two major championships less than one calendar year apart from one another. Xander Schauffele won both the 2024 PGA Championship and The Open, and just last season, Scottie Scheffler did the same.

In 2024, Scheffler won the Players and the Masters, and in 2025, Rory McIlroy followed suit by winning those exact same tournaments roughly one month apart. Where McIlroy veered off course, however, was this April at Augusta National Golf Club, where he became just the fourth player in tournament history to successfully defend his green jacket.

While McIlroy has been in top shape ever since he debuted his floppy hair and Oakley belt buckle, he has never been as well-positioned as he is now to go on a run. It’s one part scheduling and one part the man who wields the clubs.

“It’s a much more condensed schedule than it used to be,” McIlroy said. “We used to go from April to the end of August. It’s now April to the middle of July. That’s why I need to — especially after the last couple of years — take the time after the Masters to reset and decompress and get myself in the right mental space again to get myself up for this tournament and keep going for the U.S. Open and The Open Championship. Obviously, there’s some tournaments in between those as well. 

“I came into this tournament last year a little bit sort of uncertain of what my future was — just like I conquered this thing that I wanted to conquer for so long, and I was a little bit — you know, I still hadn’t really reset goals or found whatever that motivation was to keep going or go forward and set myself goals for the rest of my career. It probably took me a good few months to get to that point. … Coming into this tournament feels a lot different than what it did last year. I feel like I’ve got some nice, clear road ahead to try to get some more of these majors.”

Even with the old schedule, McIlroy was no stranger to runs. In his youth, he sprinted past his peers with his second PGA Championship title at Valhalla in 2014 coming one month before he raised the Claret Jug at Royal Liverpool. He won the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in between the two just for good measure.

Those two wins put his major tally at four, where it remained until last year’s Masters. The agony at Augusta National was not only put to bed with the career grand slam achieved in 2025, but the major drought ended, too. The marathon man, who has been a top-20 player for more than a decade, put on his running shoes instead.

Rory McIlroy’s major performances after major wins

This week at Aronimink Golf Club, the 108th PGA Championship offers McIlroy an opportunity to continue his stride. He has won two of his last five major championships, even after failing to clear mental hurdles at this championship (and the U.S. Open) a season ago, and he is showcasing a speed — both literal and figurative — that his peers simply do not possess.

“I think, in this day and age, I’m not sure if it’s going to test all aspects of your bag … as I said, strategy off the tee is pretty nonexistent,” McIlroy said of Aronimink. “It’s basically bash driver down there and then figure it out from there, which I think … when these traditional golf courses take a lot of trees out, it makes strategy not as much of a concern off the tee. But the greens are … the main focus this week, and I think getting yourself in the right sections of the greens, making sure you leave yourself below the hole for the most part. That’s the key this week.”

The clubhead speed may be neutralized compared to prior PGAs — although bombers will still have an advantage — but McIlroy will find a way to access a different gear. He has options that the 2014 version of himself did not. 

McIlroy possesses off-speed pitches with his wedges that used to be a thorn in his side. He has an underappreciated short game capable of threatening the best. He has a game — both physical and mental — that is more complete. Yet while the man and the schedule may look dissimilar from McIlroy’s last multiple major championship campaign, the run in which he compiles those same trophies may not.