Rory McIlroy has had a stellar year, winning four tournaments, but the Northern Irish golf ace has acknowledged that he is ‘definitely’ nearing the end of his career
Rory McIlroy has admitted he’s definitely entering the latter stages of his career, offering a glimpse into his strategy for tackling golf in the years ahead.
The 36-year-old has enjoyed his most successful campaign to date, securing victories at the Pebble Beach Pro/Am, Players Championship, the Masters, and most recently at the Irish Open.
He now heads into the Ryder Cup off the back of a solid performance at the K Club, with a chance to crown his remarkable year with success in the tournament he holds dearest.
McIlroy was speaking at Wentworth ahead of the BMW PGA Championship, which is another new home event for the five-time major champion following his relocation to a mansion on the estate.
He recognised that his days in professional golf are numbered, voicing his wish to compete when and where he sees fit, reports the Mirror US.
Asked whether he believes he’s on the back nine of his career, McIlroy playfully replied: “Yeah, absolutely, back six!”
He continued: “No. I mean, if you go back to my quotes from – I was asked about this at The Players, even before I won The Players, and I said the same thing.
“I don’t want to be grounding out here at 50 years of age. I’ll turn up and play the majors and have a nice time but you know, whenever I’m done, I’m done, whenever that is.
“That’s certainly not right now, but I’m certainly closer to that point now than I was in 2007 when I turned pro.” McIlroy has expanded his worldwide schedule this year, intending to compete in India and Australia for the first time, a choice shaped by guidance from tennis icon Roger Federer.
“I had a chat with Roger Federer,” he said. “I don’t know [when], a few years ago, sort of at the end of his career, and he was saying he wanted to go and play a lot of the places he could never play in his career.
“So some of the smaller 250 events just because not a lot of people had never seen him play tennis before.” McIlroy then disclosed his own intentions: “Again, at this point I want to play golf when I want to play golf.
“I want to play in the locations that I love to go to, and I want to play the majors and the Ryder Cup. That’s it. I’m not going to be going by minimums or anything else.
“Like I’ll obviously do my bit to make sure I keep my membership and all that on certain tours, but I’m going to play where I want to play.”
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