The DP World Tour have announced the Rory McIlroy Award which will begin in 2026 – but the Masters champion is ineligible to claim the trophy that will carry his name
Rory McIlroy completed his career Grand Slam at the Masters in April(Image: Getty Images)
Rory McIlroy has put his name to a new trophy to reward the best DP World Tour player in the Majors each year – but the Masters champion can’t win it.
The Ulsterman became the first European to complete the career Grand Slam by winning in Augusta in April. Now on the eve of the season-ending DP World Tour Championships, the DP World Tour have announced the Rory McIlroy Award for the tour member who performs the best across all four Major Championships in a season.
The only catch for the Ulsterman – he is not allowed to win it. The five-time Major winner smiled: “It would be cool but I am ineligible for it. I thought it would be better if I wasn’t. I think it was a decision made by all of us. We thought it was best if I would be ineligible for it.”
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McIlroy became the fifth player to have an award named after him on the DP World Tour. It is in recognition of his on-course achievements – and his ongoing support for the tour during the LIV civil war and even this season playing events in India and Australia next month
“It’s a huge honour,” he added. “In 2008, it was the Sir Henry Cotton Award (Rookie of the Year) I was trying to get to. Then trying to win Harry Vardon (Race to Dubai winner) trophies and Seve Ballesteros (Players’ Player of the Year) awards.
“And now there’s obviously going to be an award under my name which is very, very cool, to recognise the best DP World Tour player, their performance in the four major championships over the course of the year.
“It’s an amazing honour, and I’m looking forward to next year when the majors are over and being able to hand it to whoever the deserving winner is.”
Rory McIlroy will bid to win his seventh Race to Dubai title this week(Image: Photo by David Cannon/Getty Images)
McIlroy, 36, became only the sixth man to complete the career Grand Slam after Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods. And revealed he was first asked about the award by DP World Tour chief executive Guy Kinnings following Augusta.
“When Guy approached us about it after the Masters, my first inclination was it’s a bit soon, a bit early,” he said. “And the more I thought about it, I’m not going to be around forever playing.
“So it will still be amazing to have any name, after my playing days, my name associated with this tour, and hopefully have an award named after me, that means something to future generations that they want to strive towards to achieve.
“As I said, an amazing honour to have my name up there along with Harry Vardon and Sir Henry Cotton and Seve Ballesteros and John Jacobs (PGA Coaching Award), that’s very special.”
Rory McIlroy is level with Seve Ballesteros with six Race to Dubai titles(Image: David Cannon/Allsport/Getty Images)
McIlroy is bidding to retain his title at the DP World Tour Championships this week and complete a fourth consecutive Race to Dubai win – and seventh in all to overtake the mark he shares with Ballesteros. Only Colin Montgomerie with eight – including seven-in-a-row – has won more.
“I think it’s amazing to have that sustained excellence for that long,” McIlroy added. “There’s a lot of people that can have a good year or a two-year run. But to sustain that for seven years straight, it probably doesn’t get talked about enough, especially in that golden age of European golf where he’s going up against Faldo and Lyle and Langer and Woosie. Not saying that this isn’t a pretty good generation, too, but he had to fend off some really tough competition.
McIlroy strengthened his lead this year with a tied third in Abu Dhabi with Marco Penge and Tyrrell Hatton needing to win to have a realistic chance of overhauling him on Sunday.
“I feel like my game rounded into some really good form at the weekend, and hopefully I can continue that from Thursday on,” said the world No.2.
