Rory McIlroy’s 2024 success: Is expectation too high for him and should he be winning more frequently? | Golf News

We hold Rory McIlroy to the highest standards because we know what he is capable of.

He is arguably our favourite player in the game and the best since Tiger Woods came onto the scene. He is enormously talented but he is also one of the most frustrating players out there because we see him making our mistakes.

Although he has won four times throughout the world in 2024, he should be knocking off more titles. This year has been a great career for an average golfer, for an ordinary golfer, but Rory McIlroy is far from average.

He won the Hero Dubai Desert Classic and the Wells Fargo Championship for the fourth time each, then won the DP World Tour Championship for a third time – all held at venues he has enjoyed success before. He’s also had some good performances around courses but fumbled within view of the finishing line.

I can’t imagine what it’s like going back to a golf course you’ve won at least two times on before, let alone three. It must fill you with a tremendous amount of confidence. Without trying to demean other players, McIlroy is so far ahead that he can often contend for a championship in third gear.

It’s difficult to win a golf tournament anywhere in the world, such is the quality of fields on show every single week, but we’ve seen times this season where he has made mistakes that I feel many of his peers – right at the top of the game – would not have.

He seems to be heading down this path of looking at his golf swing as a reason for why he’s not won another major but, to me, it looks like decision-making when the pressure is at its peak. I see part of his weakness as not taking advantage of one of his most impressive strengths.

He’s by far one of the best drivers that there’s ever been, in which case then he should be turning most par fives into a birdie four. Unfortunately for a player of that stature, he makes too many unforced errors, trying to make that eagle but walking off with a five or six.

He needs to make the most of that prodigious length and accuracy he possesses. I just get the feeling he doesn’t know when to hold them and doesn’t know when to fold them and that foot to the floor mentality, unfortunately, in some instances can be his undoing.

McIlroy’s major pressure continues

We can all look back at the US Open and see several opportunities, over those last few holes, where he could have made better decisions and would possibly be a five-time major champion by this stage.

Having said that, nobody has any idea how much tension and pressure these players are under in a situation like McIlroy faced, with those missed putts at Pinehurst No 2. It’s happened to other players of similar stature like that in the past.

McIlroy has gone on record saying that it has been so long since he won a major that it now feels like, when he’s in contention, that he’s trying to win for the first time. That’s a really difficult situation to be in.

He is aware of the pain and the scar tissue of past losses, the distraction and noise that surrounds him every major. That just ramps up the pressure even more. The fronting up to the press afterwards and having to hold your head up high, when inside you’re absolutely crushed, along with the pressure of competing over those closing stages.

When I look at where he was a decade ago, I would have expected Rory McIlroy to be in double figures of major championships by now.

I still expect him to be number one. I expect Rory McIlroy to be winning five or more times a year. I do not expect McIlroy to be going into an 11th-year major-less.

I do think if he can settle for more guaranteed birdie fours on par-fives and had better success with his wedge game, as highlighted at the DP World Tour Championship when he stiffed six or seven wedges for the week, then he can accomplish what we’ve come to expect.

A big 2025 ahead for McIlroy?

I’d love to see him win The Masters, but I just wonder whether those internal thoughts of becoming a Grand Slam winner and joining that illustrious list of Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Woods in becoming a living legend will inflict too much pressure.

I think coming to venues like Augusta National and being the favourite, because of his past record and success on them, is just going to pile the pressure on. Our expectation levels are also going to go through the roof once more.

I don’t believe McIlroy – for one second – is happy or content with sitting one major less than Brooks Koepka at the minute. He will want to re-establish himself as the best golfer in the world post-Tiger.

I’d like to see McIlroy get close to toppling Scottie Scheffler back off the No 1 spot in the world and then try to hold onto that for a substantial time. I can see him breaking his barren major spell, but I’ve not yet seen enough to say definitively that will come at Augusta. Here’s hoping…

Watch “Rory McIlroy: Expectation”, a special new documentary reflecting on his 2024 season, from December 8 on Sky Sports. McIlroy will be back in action in January, with the PGA Tour and DP World Tour exclusive live on Sky Sports Golf.