Rory McIlroy climbs the summit for the 9th time in his career
With his victory at the PGA Tour’s CJ Championship in Las Vegas last week, it seems fitting that Rory McIlroy is once again the top-ranked golfer in the world. Since the upstart Saudi-backed LIV Tour burst on the scene and ruptured the seemingly harmonious world of professional golf, McIlroy has become the traditional tours’ biggest defender and, arguably, the voice of the sport.
To have him rise to World No. 1 adds a lustre that befits that new stature. When McIlroy speaks, it will come with the added weight of his ranking in a way that is comparable to Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal talking about issues concerning the ATP Tour. Whether you agree with him or not, you have to listen to him.
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Beyond the current state of the game though, McIlroy’s latest achievement is a chance to examine his historical place in the sport, especially since it can feel like he hasn’t fulfilled his potential.
This is actually the ninth different time McIlroy has reached the top of the rankings. He also became just the third golfer to become World No.1 a decade after he first reaching the top. Tiger Woods had a span of 17 years while Greg Norman, coincidentally one of the leading men on the other side of golf’s divide – did it 11.5 years apart.
“I think the cool part is the journey and the journey getting back there,” McIlroy said after winning the CJ Cup earlier this month and taking over from American Scottie Scheffler who ascended the rankings back in March after winning The Masters. “It’s sort of like a heavyweight boxer losing a world title and it’s a journey to get that title back. I feel like that’s the cool part of it and that’s the journey that I’ve sort of been through over the past 12 months.”
Woods and Norman are also the only two men who have reached No. 1 more often than McIlroy, doing it 11 times each. It is conceivable that McIlroy, who is only 33, could match their achievement, or even surpass it.
On the other hand, in terms of total duration at the top, however, they both dwarf McIlroy. Woods was No. 1 for a record 683 weeks; Norman held it for 331 weeks. McIlroy has a total of 108 weeks at the top so far. Just to catch Norman he would have to stay there until roughly February or March 2027.
That’s unlikely. In fact, in the past, getting to No. 1 has proved easier for McIlroy than staying there. He has held on to the top spot for more than three weeks just three times and one of those was for 11 weeks, or less than three months. On two of the last three occasions he became World No. 1, he lost the top spot the very next week.
There are reasons to believe McIlroy might stay at the top a while longer this time. One significant difference is his maturity both on and off the course. The birth of his daughter Poppy in 2020 helped put the stresses of the game in perspective. “The trials and tribulations of what goes on out on the golf course don’t really seem to matter that much, so you can sort of let it just slide off you a little bit more and not be as reactive to your mistakes and know that this is – it’s important and it’s your career, but at the end of the day, you get to go home to your family, which is the most important thing,” he told Golf.com at the time.
More recently he said he is enjoying his golf more than ever and that he has come to accept you don’t have to win a Major to have a good year. “Growing up, my favourite player was Tiger Woods,” McIlroy told the Guardian. “He made it all about the Majors. The media perpetuate that narrative; of the four biggest moments in the game, the things that matter most. What I am proud of is the body of work I put together this year. It didn’t culminate in picking up one of those trophies but if I can put that together again next year or the year after, that will result in a [Major] trophy at some point.”
McIlroy has won 23 times on the PGA Tour, more than any other current player under the age of 50. If he does win one more Major, that would give him five for his career, and vault him into the top-15 of players with the most Majors. Two more would bring him level with Faldo and Phil Mickelson. Should he win The Masters, which would give him the Career Grand Slam, something only five other golfers have ever accomplished since The Masters became the fourth Major in 1934. And if McIlroy can add another 28 weeks to his time as World No. 1, he would pass Dustin Johnson and move to third on the all-time list for most weeks at the top.
Should McIlroy hit those milestones, they would make him arguably one of the best 10 or 15 players to have ever played the game. But even if he doesn’t, his career has been exceptional. Perhaps it’s time he gets more credit for what he has done rather than lamenting what he hasn’t?
We at India Golf Weekly, believe that Rory is good for the game and hope to see him stay at the top for a very long time.
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Photo – Golf Channel