Rory McIlroy is looking to finally win major number five in 2025 and former PGA player Smylie Kaufman has thrown his weight behind the Northern Irishman for at least one of the four majors.
McIlroy came agonisingly close to winning the US Open in 2024 as Bryson DeChambeau beat him on the final hole.
However, McIlroy will shave some events off his schedule and that should, in theory, leave him better placed to win at the big ones.
Now, Smylie Kaufman has suggested McIlroy will get major number five in 2025. And after Kaufman tipped Justin Thomas to make a big comeback, he has now backed McIlroy to rise again as well.
Smylie Kaufman tips Rory McIlroy to win the 2025 PGA Championship
Kaufman was speaking on the latest episode of his Smylie Show podcast and was trying to pick players who might beat Scottie Scheffler to some of the majors.
Of course, Rory McIlroy is someone who can beat Scheffler and according to Kaufman, McIlroy will land the PGA Championship this year.
“So PGA, that’s the one I don’t like him [Scheffler] in as much. Give me…Rory McIlroy at the PGA,” Kaufman said.
“US Open, I’m not interested in Rory there although Scottie interests me a lot.”
Where is the PGA Championship in 2025?
It’s safe to say that this year’s PGA Championship plays into Rory McIlroy’s hands.
The event will be held at Quail Hollow, a course where McIlroy has won four times on the PGA Tour and the scene of his first ever PGA Tour win.
McIlroy has won the Wells Fargo at the venue four times and won there in 2024 as well. Indeed, adding further support for McIlroy is the crowd at Quail Hollow, which the Northern Irishman has admitted he loves.
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“For whatever reason I get so much great support here and I said it on the 18th green after I won there that all these people have sort of watched me grow up, I won here for the first time as a 20-year-old and not 35. So, they’ve sort of seen my progression throughout the years and I’ve sort of grown up in front of their eyes. And I think that’s one of the reasons I get a lot of support here too,” McIlroy said in 2024.
It goes without saying, then, that McIlroy might not have a better chance of adding major number five.
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