When Rory McIlroy eventually retires from professional golf, he knows his legacy will be determined – in large part – by the number of majors he wins. The decade-plus major drought he has been on since brilliantly capturing his fourth at the 2014 PGA Championship as a 25-year-old looms ever larger.
The story is well known by now, near miss after near miss in the years since and increased scrutiny heading into every major – especially at Augusta, where the Masters is the only leg missing from a career grand slam – acts as an increasingly heavy millstone around the Northern Irishman’s neck.
Of course, McIlroy has been racking up plenty of other accolades in that ‘fallow’ decade. FedEx Cups, Players Championships, Ryder Cups, PGA Tour ‘signature events’ and DP World Tour ‘Race to Dubai’ money list victories have been mounting with remarkable consistency. And it’s the last of those that is particularly pertinent this week.
McIlroy heads to the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai knowing that a top-11 finish will seal a sixth money list triumph and even in the relatively unlikely event he fails to achieve that, he will top the list anyway providing South Africa’s Thriston Lawrence doesn’t win the event.
It will be a third straight Race to Dubai triumph for the 35-year-old and his career total of six would match the legendary Seve Ballesteros to leave him only trailing Colin Montgomerie, who won seven straight from 1993 to 1999 and then added an eighth for good measure in 2005.
The reaction from many will be ‘So what. Who cares?’ McIlroy, more than any other current golfer, is now almost solely judged on major titles and whether he has ended the drought yet. He is perhaps a victim of his own success in that regard, as all other achievements appear to be largely discounted now.
And it’s true that his 2024 season will probably be remembered for the crushing way he lost the US Open to Bryson DeChambeau, with three bogeys in the final four holes turning a likely victory into another dose of major heartbreak, rather than a sixth DPWT money list win.
But while the man himself acknowledges the pain of that loss, he is also eager not to simply write off every other event – of which he has won three this year (the Dubai Desert Classic, the Zurich Classic of New Orleans with Shane Lowry and the Wells Fargo Championship).
“Incredibly consistent again,” was McIlroy’s appraisal when asked to assess his season this week. “But then at the same time, you know, thinking about the ones that got away, I could be sitting up here with a fifth major title and I am not.
“So that stings and that’s something that I have to come to terms with, but at the same time I’ve got plenty more opportunities in the future. Did I achieve every goal I set for myself this year? Probably not. But I still consider it a successful season.”
It’s easy and convenient to boil McIlroy’s career down to just major titles but he has never been shy in his desire to go down as the best male European golfer of all time.
Even the biggest golf nerd or most ardent member of the ‘only majors matter’ crowd is unlikely to answer the question ‘Who is the greatest male European golfer of all time’ with the name Harry Vardon. Yet purely on major championship wins, the man from Jersey leads the way thanks to his six Opens and one US Open between 1896 and 1914.
Realistically, the two men McIlroy will need to overhaul to lay undisputed claim to the crown are Nick Faldo (six major titles) and Ballesteros (five), which gives credence to the idea that something more than just majors has to matter in this calculation, given the cultural legacy within golfing circles of the Spaniard in particular.
Tying Ballesteros on five European Tour money list victories this week is certainly important to McIlroy himself, who also expressed regret at not always prioritising Race to Dubai crowns in recent years.
“Seve is almost like a, not a mythical character to me, but was just a little bit before my time,” explained McIlroy. “But he was my dad’s favourite player and with the immense impact he had on European golf from a Ryder Cup perspective and from what he did for the European Tour, he means a lot to the overall game of golf.
“So to draw level with him and to have a career that can somewhat stack up against his is very cool. I probably went a few years without prioritising it [the Race to Dubai] and I sort of regret that, I think I’d be a little closer to Monty [on eight wins] than I am.
“But it’s a huge honour. Every time that I come back and play on this tour, I’m proud to be a member and proud to support it as much as I can. If I was to win the Race to Dubai for a sixth time, that would be a really cool achievement.”
There is a debate to be had around the value and cache that should be placed on winning the Race to Dubai nowadays versus doing so in Ballesteros or Montgomerie’s day.
On one hand, McIlroy plays in the USA far more regularly than either of those men did, making his ability to keep winning the season-long European Tour race even more remarkable. However, the fact the best European players are often similarly engaged on the PGA Tour does mean that the quality of field in DP World Tour events is arguably inferior to the 1980s and 1990s – theoretically making it an easier title to win.
Regardless of its merits, McIlroy clearly places importance on it and, as he moves towards his late 30s, has confirmed that he will be slightly reducing his playing schedule next season. Yet, as he told the Daily Telegraph last week, rather than DP World Tour events being lopped off the rota, he will instead sacrifice a few US tournaments instead – including at least one of the PGA Tour’s $20m ‘signature events’ and the first event of the FedEx Cup play-offs.
In an interview with the BBC, he insisted: “I’m not going to miss these tournaments in the Middle East, I’m not going to miss Wentworth, the Irish Open or the Scottish Open. There were a few events I played in America this season that I don’t typically play and I think that’s where I’m going to have to trim a little bit.”
Yes, at this point of his career it’s largely ‘majors or bust’ for McIlroy when determining the success of his season but let’s not completely discount everything else. Another Race to Dubai win this week would enhance his legacy and inch him ever closer to being golf’s greatest European.
