Rory McIlroy continued his fine form in 2025 by making a good start at The Truist Championship to finish at four under for round one and he’s made a bold prediction about the future of the game.
McIlroy’s grand slam completion by winning The Masters last month has been one of the biggest stories in golf in years.
After over a decade of trying to get it done, McIlroy’s dramatic win was a feel-good moment for the sport in general and prompted McIlroy to ask the media afterwards ‘what are we going to talk about next year?’.
Of course, that was a joke from McIlroy but after doing the business at Augusta and now continuing his form at The Truist, he has actually been asked the question in real-time.
Rory McIlroy responds when asked how golf will look in a decade
McIlroy will have known deep down that a journalist would eventually pick him up on it and sure enough, after round one of The Truist, he was quizzed.
However, McIlroy – as usual – was quick with his response and suggested that there are many great storylines to come in golf, with or without him.
“Hopefully in two weeks time you’re talking about me being a six-time major champion instead of a five-time major champion,” McIlroy admitted.
“I mean, I don’t know. I was really referencing like that specific tournament and sort of what we talk about in that building every year for the last ten years.
“There’s enough great storylines in golf, whether it be like Scottie won by a million last week and seems to be playing back to his best. You’ve got Jordan Spieth going for the career grand slam next week. You’ve got a lot of exciting stuff happening in the women’s game.
“There’s always great storylines in golf, and it certainly doesn’t just have to be about me.”
Rory McIlroy admits he’s using The Truist as prep for the PGA Championship
Any time a player enters a tournament, they’re going to want to win that event.
However, it goes without saying that this week’s event at the Philly Cricket Club is a bit of a warm up for many players ahead of the PGA.
Scottie Scheffler isn’t even playing, and Rory McIlroy has now admitted that he’s focused on the PGA as well.
“Look, to me, this is — I don’t want to diminish this tournament and this championship, but to me, with everything that’s happened over the past couple of weeks, this was always going to be a great prep week for me to see where my game was and sort of refine a few things,” McIlroy continued.
“I still want to play well, and I still want to have a chance to win the tournament, but I’ll have a really — a much better gauge of where my game is going into next week after these four days than I would have had if I hadn’t had played or if I just spent the week at home practicing. So it’s an important week for me.”
With so many in good form ahead of Quail Hollow, McIlroy knows only his A-game will win out.
However, minus-four for the opener is not a bad start and if he can kick on in round two, then he might just play himself into contention for the weekend again.
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