In the 60 days since Rory McIlroy’s most recent competitive round—ironically down the road from the Emirates Golf Club at the DP World Tour’s 2024 finale—he tried to have a break.

“I’ve been working on having fun,” said McIlroy ahead of this week’s Hero Dubai Desert Classic, where he attempts to the title for a third straight year as he starts his 2025 season. “I took a couple of trips, went to a Borussia Dortmund [soccer] game on Friday night. I went to New Zealand for a few days [in December].”

Such a rest was needed after a tumultuous 2024. There was heartbreak, such as missing two short putts to lose the U.S. Open and runner-up results at the BMW PGA Championship and the Irish Open in his native Northern Ireland. There were plenty of highs, too. He teamed with Irishman Shane Lowry to win the PGA Tour’s Zurich Classic, as well as another victory at the Wells Fargo at Quail Hollow and two DP World Tour titles. Both came in Dubai and helped him earn his sixth DP World Tour Order of Merit honour.

But even as the four-time major winner tried to take his mind off the minutiae of pro golf, he was called back into it. In recent weeks his protégé, Tom McKibbin, who grew up on the same Holywood Golf Club in Belfast where McIlroy learned the game, has been contemplating a move to LIV Golf, where he reportedly would join Jon Rahm’s Legion XIII team when the league’s season starts in February. The surprise in this is that McKibbin earned a PGA Tour card for 2025 off his success on the DP World Tour pros a year ago. McKibbin did not comment directly when asked about his future last week while competing in the Hero Cup.

“As soon as he got the offer, he rang me and I just landed in New Zealand,” said McIlroy, who flew 10,000 miles to play social rounds at the world-renowned Tara Iti course and nearby Te Arai Links. “We had a really good conversation, and I talked to him multiple times [in] December. [He was] very open to hearing my perspective, and I appreciated him calling me to get it.”

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McIlroy says he first met McKibbin when he was 10 and has served as a mentor of sorts ever since. Ross Kinnaird

What McIlroy gave McKibbin, who won the 2023 Porsche European Open and is in the Dubai Desert Classic field, was heartfelt and brutally honest advice.

“I really like Tom as a person, as a player,” McIlroy said. “I think he’s got a ton of potential. I said to him, if I were in your shoes, I would make a different choice than the one you’re thinking of making. Working so hard to get your [PGA] Tour card in the States last year was a big achievement.

“I don’t think anything is official yet. I think what he potentially is sacrificing and giving up with access to majors, a potential Ryder Cup spot … if I were in his position and I had his potential, which I think I have been before, I wouldn’t make that decision. But I’m not him. I’m not in his shoes. He’s a grown man at this point and can make his own decisions.”

McIlroy, though, who has known McKibbin “since he was 10 years old,” couldn’t hide his feelings.

“Personally, for me it would be a little disappointing if it were to happen but … I made it perfectly clear: ‘I am not going to stand your way if you need to make the decision you feel like you need to make for yourself.’ But at the same time, I feel like he’s giving up a lot to not really benefit that much. No one knows exactly how much [he is] going to get [as a signing bonus]. What I would say is, there is still a ton of money to be made on the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour. There is so much money in the game, and some would argue too much money in the game for the eyeballs that we attract.”

Not that money is at all on McIlroy’s mind as he begins his golf calendar attempting to win his fifth Dubai Desert Classic title. If 2024 was a whirlwind year for the 35-year-old, 2025 could be colossal. There’s a Ryder Cup at Bethpage in the September, while in the majors he will again have a chance to complete the career grand slam at the Masters while the Open Championship is returning to his beloved Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland and the PGA Championship goes to Quail Hollow, a course he’s won at four times.

By way of being fresh and prepared for so many high profile events, McIlroy plans to play four fewer events this season from the 26 official starts he made last year.

All the while, McIlroy will attempt to win a fifth career major after a 10-year drought filled with close calls. Recently, he has had second-place finishes at the past two U.S. Opens and one runner-up at the 2022 Masters. There was also a heartbreaking third place behind winner Cam Smith at the 150th Open at St. Andrews.

“I think it’s time now. I’m still young-ish,” he said. “I’ve been close to doing some really good things over the last few years, but I understand that the window is very slowly closing, and I want to make sure I do everything to have the best career I possibly can.”

Speaking of his legacy, it was polished this week with a Seve Ballesteros Award for Player of the Year for 2024. He wants to polish it further at the Ryder Cup at Bethpage in September, two years after McIlroy led the Europeans to a home victory over the U.S. in Rome, Italy.

“One of my career goals going forward is to try to win another away Ryder Cup,” he said. “I’ve experienced it once [at Medinah in 2012], and it was absolutely amazing. I would love to experience it once again. It’s getting harder and harder to do [but] we’ve got a great opportunity this year.”

Indeed, McIlroy does. On many fronts.

Main Image: Richard Heathcote