Golfer Rory McIlroy Declares His Plans to Play Less in 2025: ‘I’m Not Getting Any Younger’

Heading into 2025, Rory McIlroy is cutting down the number of competitions on his schedule.

“There’s a few tournaments that I played this year that I don’t usually play and that I might not play next year,” McIlroy, 35, shared in a recent interview with The Telegraph. “Like, I played the Cognizant [Classic] in Palm Beach Gardens, [the Texas Open in] San Antonio and the [RBC Heritage in] Hilton Head.”

He added: “I’ll probably not play the first play-off event in Memphis. I mean, I finished basically dead last there this year [tied for 68 in a 70-man field], and only moved down one spot in the play-off standings.”

McIlroy said that his age was a factor behind scaling back which tournaments he plays in. “Well, at this point in my career … Hey, I’m 35 and have been out here for 17, 18 years, so I’m just going to go to the places that I enjoy and where I play well, he explained. “Look I’ve done the hard slog, I’ve done that sort of 25 to 30 events a year. And I’m not getting any younger.”

McIlroy — who recently competed at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, his 26th event of the year — announced he was taking a brief hiatus from the sport after losing to Bryson DeChambeau at the U.S. Open Championship earlier this summer.

“I’m going to take a few weeks away from the game process everything and build myself back up for my defense of the Genesis Scottish Open and The Open at Royal Troon,” he wrote via X in June.

He broke his silence on his golf break three months later. “There’s been a lot going on this year from golf-wise and then, obviously, personal-wise as well,” he said during a September appearance on The Late Late Show. “Sometimes life can get a lot and it can get too much, and I had to take a little bit of a break and get away from the game more than anything else.”

McIlroy noted that he needed to take a pause from “the business of golf” to sort out his top priorities. “[What’s] actually important to me is friends, family [and] enjoying myself,” he added. “Enjoy the fact that you were this little boy in Holywood, and you’ve grown up to be whatever it is that I am, and I need to enjoy that time.”

Outside of his golf career, McIlroy has made headlines this year for his up-and-down relationship with his wife, Erica Stoll. The athlete filed for divorce from Stoll, 37, after seven years of marriage in May but dismissed the filing one month later.

“Over the past weeks, Erica and I have realized that our best future was a family together,” he shared in a June statement to The Guardian. “Thankfully, we have resolved our differences and look forward to a new beginning.”

Stoll went on to support her husband at the Genesis Scottish Open in North Berwick, Scotland, in July. McIlroy, meanwhile, revealed in his September interview on The Late Late Show that the pair’s 4-year-old daughter, Poppy, has taken “a little bit of an interest” in golf.

“If she did [become a pro golfer], I would be 100 percent supportive, but at the same time, I wouldn’t mind if she did something different,” he stated.