Rory McIlroy

Rory McIlroy won four majors before the age of 26, including the The 143rd Open at Royal Liverpool, and following his victory at the Players Championship in March now has an impressive 28 PGA Tour titles to his name.

He has also won 18 times on the DP World Tour, where his success in November’s DP World Tour Championship secured the circuit’s No1 spot for the sixth time. That equalled the number achieved by Seve Ballesteros and sits only two behind the record of Colin Montgomerie.

On his seventh Ryder Cup appearance in 2023 McIlroy was the top scorer for Europe as they regained the trophy.

He was an eight-shot winner of both the 2011 US Open and 2012 PGA Championship, the first of those making him at 22 the youngest holder of the trophy since Bobby Jones in 1923.

At 17 he was European amateur champion and at 18 was the leading amateur at The Open.

To date McIlroy has enjoyed nine spells as world No 1 and in 2022 only Scottie Scheffler denied him the Masters crown he craves to become just the sixth player to complete a career Grand Slam.

Since his second PGA Championship crown in 2014 he has recorded 21 top ten finishes in majors, but no further victories, having just been pipped by Bryson DeChambeau at last June’s US Open.