Updated Dec. 18, 2025, 5:30 p.m. ET
Have a year, Rory McIlroy.
On Thursday, McIlroy was named 2025 BBC Sports Personality of the Year, becoming just the third golfer to take home the award in its 71-year history and the first since Nick Faldo in 1989. The 36-year-old from Holywood, Northern Ireland, won the Masters in April to complete the career Grand Slam — just the sixth golfer ever to do so.
McIlroy was one of three finalists for award. English rugby union player Ellie Killdunne finished second in the voting and Formula 1 driver Lando Norris was third.
“Wow. First of all, I would like to congratulate all of the other finalists,” McIlroy said after accepting the award. “I know how much hard work and dedication it takes, so it is a pleasure to just be in this room. I feel truly honored to just be a part of it.”
While certainly the most notable, completing the career Grand Slam was far from McIlroy’s only on-course triumph this year. He also won the Players Championship and the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am on the PGA Tour to go along with a victory at the Amgen Irish Open on the DP World Tour and a seventh-consecutive Race to Dubai title. He also went 3-1-1 at Bethpage Black as Team Europe won the Ryder Cup on U.S. soil for the first time since 2012.
“2025 has been the year I made my dreams come true,” McIlroy said. “From Augusta to the Ryder Cup and everything in between, it’s the year dreams are made of.”
McIlroy is the first male athlete to win BBC Sports Personality of the Year since F1 driver Lewis Hamilton’s victory in 2020. The last athlete from Northern Ireland to win the award was jockey Tony McCoy in 2010.
