Tied for the lead with three holes left in an exhausting season for Rory McIlroy, he launched a pitching wedge toward the 16th green in Dubai and barked out desperate instructions.
“Go! Go! Go!” he urged the golf ball as it descended over the water.
It dropped in front of the flag, a foot from the hole, a shot that carried him to another victory in the season-ending DP World Tour Championship, his fourth win of the year, and a sixth title as No. 1 on the European tour.
By all accounts, it was a great year.
But it’s different when those trophies — and a big one that was missing — belong to McIlroy.
“I’m going to look back on 2024 and I’m going to have four wins,” he said.
Two were in Dubai, at the start and finish of the year. One was at Quail Hollow for the fourth time. The other was the most fun — the Zurich Classic with close friend Shane Lowry, followed by McIlroy belting out Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” at a post-tournament party.
“But I know that my 2024 is going to be defined — at least by others — by the tournaments that I didn’t win as much as the tournaments I did,” he said.
Such are the expectations for McIlroy. He has to come to accept them, or he wouldn’t have brought that up without any prompting. This is what happens with greatness. And this is a level of play that remarkably doesn’t get enough credit.
Yes, he was tops in Europe for the third consecutive time, and sixth overall. That leaves him only two away from matching the record of Colin Montgomerie, who had the advantage of never leaving Europe to play two tours.
But go back to Oct. 4, 2009. McIlroy tied for second in the Dunhill Links Championship and moved to No. 19 in the world at age 20. He has not been outside the top 20 ever since, an astonishing streak of 15 years and counting.
Phil Mickelson at 16 years and 30 weeks is the only player to have a longer run in the top 20.
Even so, the only streak that matters when the conversation turns to McIlroy is his 10 straight years without a major. That’s what gives him pause when he rates his year. He was three holes away from a U.S. Open title at Pinehurst No. 2 until he missed short par putts on the 16th and 18th holes, and Bryson DeChambeau saved par with an exquisite bunker shot to beat him.
McIlroy has been desperate to win the Masters for the career Grand Slam. At this point, any major would do. Who could have imagined his last major would have come at age 25?
There also was disappointment on losing a late lead to a fast-charging Rasmus Hojgaard in the Irish Open at Royal County Down, right when all of Northern Ireland was ready to celebrate McIlroy winning on home soil.
Billy Horschel beat him in a playoff at Wentworth. McIlroy’s dynamic charge in Paris drowned with a wedge into the water at the Olympics. Play long enough at that level and those outcomes are bound to happen.
A great year? For anyone else, sure.
“Unfortunately for Rory, I think everybody looks at the glass half-empty,” Lowry said. “I look at it glass half-full. He’s had an amazingly consistent year. I’ve had a consistent year, but he’s had consistent top-3 finishes — mine are top 15s.
“He probably should have won the U.S. Open — let’s be honest, and he’d say that himself — but he didn’t,” Lowry said. “I think he is more determined than ever to come out firing next year, and obviously the Masters will be on the forefront.”
It was more than DeChambeau pipping him at Pinehurst that gave McIlroy pause. He won four times and actually dropped one spot in the world ranking to No. 3, behind Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele.
Scheffler has no equal at the moment with eight wins, including the Masters, The Players Championship and Olympic gold. Schauffele won two majors at the PGA Championship and British Open.
“They certainly separated themselves from the pack this year,” McIlroy said. “I’m obviously aware of that, and it only makes me more motivated to try to emulate what they did this year.”
McIlroy said he got choked up at the end of his season at the mention of tying the late Seve Ballesteros with a sixth Order of Merit. Ballesteros is the soul of European golf, and that’s not likely to change no matter how many more titles McIlroy wins.
But there was more to the emotion. The end of any season tends to bring that out, and this was a season like no other.
Off the course, McIlroy has been involved in negotiations between the PGA Tour and the Saudi backers of LIV Golf, and his desire to reunite with LIV defectors occasionally has put him at odds with other players.
Far more personal was the shock announcement in May he had filed for divorce, and then disclosing a month later they had scrapped the divorce filing in a bid to save their marriage. His wife, Erica, and 4-year-old daughter Poppy celebrated with him in Dubai. Call it five wins for the year.
He played 27 times, a lot early in search of the right formula to be ready for the Masters, and a lot late because the European tour means a lot to him. He says he will scale back. He is not getting any younger. He is no less entertaining.
In light of it all, golf is a game. But that wedge was big. Winning was important. For such a tumultuous year, it was the ideal way for it to end.
“Yeah, it’s been quite the year,” McIlroy said. “But you know, I’m super happy with where I am in my career and in my life. And I feel like everything’s worked out the way it was supposed to.”
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