Winter 2025

112 C A R M E L M A G A Z I N E • W I N T E R 2 0 2 5 2024 Masters champion Scottie Scheffler holds the traditional green jacket for Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland after McIlroy won the 2025 Masters golf tournament at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia. Photo: John Angelillo/UPI Credit: UPI/Alamy Live News with a horrific 80 and a tie for 20th. A native of Holywood, Northern Ireland, McIlroy knew well the political suffering his fam- ily endured through the 1980s and ’90s. It was Tiger Woods’ 1997 victory at the Masters that inspired him to play golf. As McIlroy put on the green jacket, he said “It feels incredible. This is my 17th time here, and I start- ed to wonder if it would ever be my time…I’d say it was 14 years in the making, from going out with the four-shot lead in 2011—feeling like I could have got it done there.There was a lot of pent- up emotion that just came out on the 18th green. But a moment like that makes all of the years and close calls worth it.” The creation of the Saudi Arabian-backed LIV Tour lured such luminaries as Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka with lucrative bonuses.To keep McIlroy and others in the PGA Tour corral, purses were increased, bonuses issued, and shares of stock in a new PGA Tour Enterprises (backed by American investors) were given. The AT&T in February will again have a $20 million purse and an elite field of 80 players in what is called a “signature event.”The format emphasizes the professionals and has reduced amateur play to two of the four days. At the 2025 U.S. Open, McIlroy finished tied for 19th, and philosophically opined afterward that he had lost his motivation since winning the Masters. “I climbed my Everest in April, and I think after you do something like that, you’ve got to make your way back down, and you’ve got to look for another mountain to climb.” McIlroy won 3.5 points in the Ryder Cup, despite losing 1-up in the singles to Scheffler, the world’s number one player who had six PGATour vic- tories in 2025. McIlroy has tempered his strident stance on LIV, now looking forward to reunification.“We don’t look behind us. We don’t look to the past,” he says. “Whatever’s happened has happened and it’s been unfortunate, but reunification, how we all come back together and move forward, that’s the best thing for everyone…” Perhaps the troubles will be a thing of the past for McIlroy in 2026. As McIlroy put on the green jacket, he said “It feels incredible. This is my 17th time here, and I started to wonder if it would ever be my time…”