With Rory McIlroy being the odds-on favorite to win 2025 BBC Sports Personality of the Year golf’s long wait for a winner will surely end, and deservedly so after what’s been a monumental year.
It’s tough to nail down the specific criteria for a BBC SPOTY winner as ultimately it’s decided by a public vote, but the BBC Sport website says the aim is that the trophy goes to “the sportsperson whose sporting actions have most captured the UK public’s imagination during 2025.”
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From becoming just the sixth man ever to win the career Grand Slam with his epic Masters victory in April, to facing all manner of abuse when helping Europe win a rare away Ryder Cup – it’s been a year full of career-defining moments and one fully deserving of winning SPOTY.
McIlroy achieved things most players can only dream of, in a catalogue of spine tingling moments all done in true Rory McIlroy fashion and most of which cut through from just golf into the sporting mainstream.
Let’s look at why McIlroy should deservedly win BBC SPOTY at the awards ceremony on December 18.
Should Rory McIlroy win SPOTY? And what’s your view on the award? Let us know in the comment section below.
Joining Grand Slam club & fulfilling lifelong dream
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Winning The Masters remains the most iconic achievement in golf, as donning the Green Jacket probably edges out lifting the Claret Jug as the biggest tournament win a golfer can achieve.
But with Rory McIlroy at Augusta National this April it was so much more than that – there’s arguably never been more intense pressure on a single round of golf than his Sunday among the Azaleas.
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Consider the factors – chasing not only a lifelong dream but a seat at the Grand Slam table, the most exclusive club in golf, and all coming at the scene of his greatest golfing meltdown at the 2011 Masters.
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Throw in a decade filled with of heartbreaking near misses in pursuit of a fifth Major and failure to convert may just have been too much for McIlroy to come back from.
And the way he did it – that missed putt on 18 the first time around and the way he responded in the playoff, the raw emotion pouring out of every fibre of his body as he dropped to his knees was pure sporting theater at its very best.
It was a triumph for perseverance, of Rocky-esque powers of recovery as McIlroy faced all those ghosts of missed Majors past, his haunting around Augusta and years of growing frustration – and managed to come out with one of the most meaningful Green Jackets ever won.
If McIlroy did nothing else in 2025 but win The Masters, he still should’ve been a favorite for BBC SPOTY, it was that big.
Ryder Cup victory transcended the sport
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The BBC Sport website also says the nomination panel “took into account ‘impact’ of the person’s sporting achievement beyond the sport in question” and McIlroy’s Ryder Cup exploits certainly fit the bill.
The women footballers and rugby players on the list also rely on teammates while Lando Norris was supplied with the fastest car around to win the F1 world title – so Luke Littler you could argue is the only SPOTY candidate to have similar individual honors to McIlroy.
However, the Northern Irishman also had one of the biggest team achievements in world sport when leading Team Europe to a rare away win in the Ryder Cup – in what was the toughest environment ever seen in the competition’s history.
And what followed truly captured the imagination of general sports fans around the globe – along with news outlets soaking up the increasingly volatile New York crowd as several overstepped the mark.
Yes, McIlroy’s frustrations boiled over a few times, but what’s made him such a box office golfer over the years is that human element. He lets his emotions get the better of him at times, he’s as far from robotic as you can get.
With insults flying at him, his caddie Harry Diamond and even his wife Erica – who had a beer thrown towards her at one stage – McIlroy still helped Europe bring home the trophy against all the odds.
Going into the lion’s den, battling against a hostile crowd and coming out on top has been the basis of many a sporting legacy – for McIlroy to be center stage in one of golf’s greatest should be rewarded.
Iconic victories & national glory
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So there’s layers to McIlroy’s year. The Masters was an iconic completion of his golfing crusade, the Ryder Cup a gladiatorial victory in the most savage of battles – but he also picked up some iconic victories elsewhere.
Winning golf tournaments is hard, so to win three others along with The Masters is some achievement – and they just happened to be three pretty important ones, starting off with a fine PGA Tour victory at the iconic Pebble Beach.
From there, the PGA Tour’s flagship event at TPC Sawgrass was won for the second time, as McIlroy beat JJ Spaun in a playoff for The Players Championship – itself an iconic event.
And just for good measure, a home victory McIlroy absolutely loves as he drained a 30-footer on the last to force, and then win, a playoff at the Amgen Irish Open in front of his adoring home fans.
Three victories that would combine for a stellar season by themselves, but three victories that were just the icing on the McIlroy cake given his other achievements.
Still Europe’s top dog
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And finally, in chronological terms anyway, McIlroy went on to win the Race To Dubai for the fourth year in a row and seventh overall title – moving him ahead of the great Seve Ballesteros.
Now only Colin Montgomerie with eight stands ahead of him in the list of finishing as European No.1, a record which he’ll surely capture soon.
Again it’s another one close to McIlroy’s heart, as he knew the significance of overtaking Seve – and it cemented his position as perhaps the best European player of all time.
Yes, he lost out in a playoff to Matt Fitzpatrick in the DP World Tour Championship, but to go through the year he had and still have the motivation to play well enough down the stretch and get the job done showed why he’s an all-time great.
And the cherry on top of the icing on the cake in terms of cementing his BBC SPOTY victory.
Golf deserves some recognition
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Playing golf is hugely popular in the UK, but that perhaps doesn’t translate into popularity in terms of eyeballs on general event coverage and especially in SPOTY voting.
McIlroy himself won the PGA Championship and The Open, along with the Ryder Cup, in 2014 but finished second behind Lewis Hamilton in the 2014 SPOTY voting.
He didn’t even turn up to the 2023 awards ceremony after being nominated, and duly finished last in the vote – but it’s a problem more with golf than with McIlroy, who has more than enough global impact and, ironically, personality, than many a winner.
Danny Willett hardly got a vote after his stunning 2016 Masters victory, Matt Fitzpatrick didn’t even get a nomination after claiming the 2022 US Open – and Georgia Hall was left speechless after also missing the shortlist following 2018 AIG Women’s Open glory.
The Hall one in particular was a huge missed opportunity to help raise the profile of women’s golf, and she remains just the third home winner of the event since it became a Major in 2001.
The lack of terrestrial coverage could be an issue, but that’s not Rory McIlroy’s fault, and having him lift the trophy would be a big boost to the game in the UK. He certainly has enough reasons to think that his time has finally come.
