Rory McIlroy wasn’t done winning in 2025. On Thursday he was voted the BBC Sports’ Personality of the Year, ending a year when he won the Masters to complete the career Grand Slam and helped lead Europe to a Ryder Cup victory in the United States.
McIlroy, 36, won the prize, which was a public vote, over Ellie Kildunne (England’s women’s rugby team) and Lando Norris (Formula 1 world champion). Nick Faldo (1989) was the last golfer to win the award. McIlroy won two major championships in 2014 and did not win.
This year, of course, McIlroy won the Masters in April via a playoff over Justin Rose to earn his first major in more than a decade. He also became just the sixth player to complete the career Grand Slam. He also on the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Players Championship, Irish Open and a fourth consecutive Race to Dubai title on the DP World Tour.
In September, McIlroy was one of the main stars for his beloved European team that topped the Americans, 15-13, at the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black in New York. Europe was better than the U.S. for the better part of two days until the Americans staged a dramatic comeback in Sunday singles.
But McIlroy contributed 3½ points that historic week and that same European squad was also honored Thursday as the BBC’s Sports Personality Team of the Year.
“From Augusta to the Ryder Cup and everything else in between,” McIlroy said, “it really has been the year that dreams are made of.”