Why Rory McIlroy has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make golf history this year

Rory McIlroy has a chance to make history in 2025.

Rory McIlroy’s 2025 major season could be historic, with the Masters under his belt and three dream venues setting up a unique chance to be the first man to complete golf’s Calendar Grand Slam.

Rory McIlroy’s Masters triumph made him just the sixth man in history to complete the career Grand Slam – but it also opened the door to something even bigger: the chance to do what no one has ever done before and win all four majors in the same calendar year.

Tiger Woods came closest, famously completing the ‘Tiger Slam’ by holding all four major titles at once. But even he didn’t do it within a single season, winning the 2000 US Open, Open, and PGA Championship, before sealing it with the 2001 Masters.

Jordan Spieth flirted with it in 2015, winning the Masters and US Open before finishing one shot shy at The Open, which was the third major that year – but nobody has ever gone four-for-four in the same year.

The fact that no one has come closer than Spieth for a decade highlights just how tough the ‘Calendar Slam’ is. But now, with the Masters under his belt, three favourable venues on the horizon, and Rory perhaps in the form of his life, the stars may finally be aligning for golf’s ultimate achievement.

Here’s why 2025’s remaining major venues are such good news for Rory…

PGA Championship – Quail Hollow, 15-18 May

No one owns Quail Hollow like Rory. And no course suits Rory better than Quail Hollow.

In 11 starts at the Wells Fargo Championship, Rory’s won four times – 2010, 2015, 2021, and 2024 – making him the only player with more than two wins at Quail Hollow. He hasn’t won any other event more than twice. And if that wasn’t enough good vibes, his 2010 triumph was also Rory’s first ever PGA Tour title, sealed with a then-course record 62 in the final round. Who broke that record? Quail conqueror Rory, of course – blazing a 61 in 2015, a number that still hasn’t been matched.

He was untouchable here last year, shooting 67-68-67-65 to cruise to a five-shot win over Scottie Scheffler – the only other player to finish double digits under par. Rory averaged 325.5 yards off the tee, outdriving the entire field by more than eight yards. He led in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee and Tee-to-Green, ranked second in both Greens in Regulation and Proximity to the Hole, and got up-and-down 17 times from 23 to sit second in Scrambling.

With numbers like that, it’s no surprise Rory is the bookies’ favourite at 5/1 – the first time in a long time anyone’s been priced shorter for a major than Scheffler, who is currently priced at 11/2.

US Open – Oakmont, 12-15 June

Rory has six top-10 finishes in a row at the US Open, the tournament where he won his first major back in 2011. He finished runner-up in the last two and probably should have won both. Would the Rory we have now – no longer carrying a 500kg weight of expectation around his neck every time he tees it up at a major – really have let Bryson DeChambeau snatch Pinehurst glory from his grasp?

He missed the cut the last time the US Open was at Oakmont, in 2016, but his record at US Opens is better than any other major. US Open setups are long and narrow, favouring those who can hit it far and straight – and Rory McIlroy might be the best in the world at exactly that. 

The Open – Royal Portrush, 17-20 July

The Claret Jug’s last visit here was set to be a serendipitous homecoming that ended McIlroy’s decade-long major drought.

And then he missed the cut.

Whilst that 2019 showing hardly seems like a good omen, McIlroy’s second-round 65 was the joint-best round of the week until fellow home favourite Shane Lowry romped to a 63 on the Sunday.

McIlroy captured the course record as a 16-year-old in 2005 during the North of Ireland Championship – firing a 61 that has never been beaten. The course was redesigned before the 2019 Open, which makes Lowry’s 63 the “official” course record, but means Rory still has the bragging rights.

With the support of a home crowd, a Green Jacket swagger in his step, and redemption in the air, Rory is the 5/1 favourite to lift the Claret Jug, ahead of – you guessed it – Scottie Scheffler at 6/1.

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