McIlroy Heads Home To Put Feet Up & Enjoy A Few Wines Ahead Of Awards & Expected Knighthood

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Grand Slam winning Rory McIlroy ended his best-ever season on a positive note with birdies at his closing two holes at the Crown Australian Open in Melbourne.

Of course, a share of 14th place was not the result McIlroy was seeking but then when he gets home to his wife and young daughter it will be then the enormity of what he accomplished this past season will begin to sink it.

McIlroy completed golf’s career grand slam in April with an emotional breakthrough to claim the Masters at Augusta.

He’d won twice on the PGA Tour before earning a green jacket while there was success at home winning the Irish Open and then heading to The Big Apple to be on a second straight victorious European Ryder Cup team before topping the DP World Tour with the No. 1 title for a  seventh time.

McIlroy’s Race to Dubai effort broke a tie with Seve Ballesteros and left just Colin Montgomerie, who achieved the feat eight times, now ahead of him.

McIlroy posted a closing 69 to trail eight shots behind new champion Rasmas Neergaard-Petersen who won the coveted Stonehaven Trophy by a shot after the bitter disappointment of Aussie Cam Smith bogeying the 18th for a second day running and lose by a shot at 14-under.

Speaking of the Masters, Neegaard-Petersen will be now be joining McIlroy at Augusta National as his win, and for a long overdue first time from those that run the tournament, earned the Dane a Masters invitation.

Not such concern for McIlroy.

“I’ve played a pretty heavy schedule post the summer with the Irish Open, Ryder Cup, and then, you know, I’ve sort of been globe-trotting a little bit the last couple of months,” said Rors.

“So excited to have a little bit of downtime and finally reflect on everything, maybe watch a few of the tournaments back. I have not really let myself do that too much.

“I’m looking forward to the Christmas break and put the feet up, a few glasses of wine and think back about what an unbelievable year it’s been.”

McIlroy’s Masters green jacket ensured he became just the sixth golfer in history to win all four majors in a career, having won a US Open, two PGA Championships and The Open.

While resting is the key for McIlroy the remaining few weeks of Decemeber promises to be packed with further recognition including:

  • Nomination as BBC Sports Personality of the Year.
  • Favourite for yet another Association of Golf Writers Golfer of the Year award
  • Jack Nicklaus medal

and then the expected announcement from Buckingham Palace on December 31st

  • Being bestowed by King Charles with being made a Knight of the British Empire.

Just over 100,000 attended the official four days of this year’s 108th hosting of the Australian Open and McIlroy’s presence can take the credit for much of that.

And before leaving McIlroy was asked his reaction to the crowd attendance.

“I think everyone knows what a great sports town Melbourne is and how people here really get behind the events that are put on, whether it’s this or Aus Open tennis or the F1 or you name it, anything else that goes on here,” he said.

“Obviously the AFL and yeah, I remember that the atmosphere, even when I played up in Sydney was amazing as well.

“That weekend I played against Adam at Royal Sydney was one of the coolest atmospheres I played in.

“So yeah, just absolutely, it’s been incredible and even Matt McCarty and I were talking about it out there and I said, oh, what brought you down here? He said, the golf course, said I really wanted to play a tournament at Royal Melbourne.

“And he said, I mean, you compare this to a, he said, you compare this to a majority of PGA Tour events, this is so much better.

“So I think everyone really appreciated the atmosphere that they played in this week, and hopefully it’ll be the same next year at Kingston Heath and hopefully the tournament sort of grows from here and sort of gets back to the stature that it deserves”.

Well said Rors.  Enjoy the Christmas Festive season and will hope to see you in Dubai early in 2026.

 



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