Rory McIlroy wins BBC Sports Personality of the Year after ‘dreams came true’ in 2025
The 36-year-old follows in the footsteps of Nick Faldo and Dai Rees as only the third golfer to win the prestigious award
Rory McIlroy has become only the third golfer in history to be crowned BBC Sports Personality of the Year after winning the Masters and the Ryder Cup in the same year.
Fellow Northern Irishman Darren Clarke twice finished as runner-up but not since Nick Faldo in 1989 has a golfer lifted the prestigious trophy.
Faldo also won the Masters that year, but he never managed to reach McIlroy’s heights of the career grand slam, completed by the triumph at Augusta in April, before he led Europe to a first away Ryder Cup for more than decade.
“2025 has been the year that I made my dreams come true, from Augusta to the Ryder Cup and everything else in between,” McIlroy said.
He added: “My family, my mum and dad sacrificed so much for me. I obviously wouldn’t be here without them.
“My wife, Erica, my daughter, Poppy, they’re what holds me together, my rock. They’re back in America, but I can’t wait to get back to see them tomorrow and celebrate this with them as well.”
And they will have much to celebrate as McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood also picked up the team of the year award on behalf of the victorious European Ryder Cup team.
By winning the individual award, McIlroy became first Northern Irishman to do so since jockey AP McCoy in 2010, the golfer pipping Rugby World Cup winner Ellie Kildunne, who finished second, and F1 world champion Lando Norris back in third.
BBC Sports Personality of the Year winners 2025
- Sports Personality of the Year: Rory McIlroy
- World Sport Star of the Year: Mondo Duplantis
- Young Sports Personality of the Year: Michelle Agyemang
- Helen Rollason award: Sergio Aguiar and David Stancombe
- Coach of the Year: Sarina Wiegman
- Team of the Year: Europe’s Ryder Cup team
- Lifetime Achievement award: Thierry Henry
Even before the winner was announced, McIlroy already appeared emotional, reliving through videos presented by actor James Nesbitt and singer Niall Horan his 15-year journey to winning the Masters at Augusta.
But he then broke down in tears paying tribute to “absolute heroes” Sergio Aguiar and David Stancombe, both of whom lost a daughter in the Southport stabbing and who were honoured with the Helen Rollason award for their fundraising work.
McIlroy found it particularly poignant as a father to five-year-old Poppy.
“Being a dad, it makes the losses a lot easier, but it also makes the good moments even more special,” McIlroy said.
“My whole family… …has watched me go through all of this just like I’m sure a lot of the public has, and I feel like everyone’s been on this journey with me.
“I could feel everyone with me on that day.”
The question of whether McIlroy would finally win the Masters had become a divisive and perennial pub debate, with the naysayers growing in number after every agonising top-five finish, of which there were four at Augusta.
And it looked as though it would be heartbreak again in 2025 when the 36-year-old missed a putt to win it on the 18th, but he held his nerve to beat Justin Rose in a playoff.
One of his great friends in golf Rose was then a team-mate five months later at the Ryder Cup in New York. At Augusta, there had been thousands of Americans cheering McIlroy on; at Bethpage Black, they turned on him when he faced a team wearing the stars and stripes.
But he once again overcame adversity, shutting out abuse suffered by both himself and his wife Erica in the crowd to claim 3.5 points from five matches, and trigger celebrations that went on well into the New York night.
The SPOTY trophy is just another well-deserved accolade in the best year of McIlroy’s career.
