Andy DevaneyEleven years after his breakthrough victory on the West Course, McIlroy returns to Wentworth chasing more than nostalgia: another BMW PGA Championship, an eighth Race to Dubai and perhaps a glimpse of how he would like the later years of his career to look.
Rory McIlroy does not often get to sleep in his own bed during tournament week. At Wentworth, he can.
That small luxury says rather a lot about McIlroy’s relationship with the BMW PGA Championship these days.
The World Number Two arrives in Surrey as a former champion, the reigning Masters winner and a player still pursuing an eighth Race to Dubai title, but the tournament has acquired something less measurable too.
“Yeah, it’s always nice to be back, I guess even more meaningful now that we have a home here. It really does feel like a home event,” McIlroy said.
For a golfer whose career has necessarily been divided between Tours, continents and competing obligations, Wentworth has become one of the increasingly rare weeks where familiarity extends beyond the golf course.
“Honestly, it’s one of my favourite weeks of the year.”
That affection does not make the West Course particularly accommodating. McIlroy knows that better than most.
Eleven years since the Wentworth comeback
His sole BMW PGA Championship victory came in 2014, when McIlroy began the final round seven shots behind before closing with a 66 to beat Shane Lowry.
It was his first professional victory on British soil and the start of an extraordinary run that continued with wins at The Open and US PGA Championship.
The curious part is that McIlroy could easily have added another Wentworth title since. He battled Francesco Molinari in 2018 and has repeatedly put himself in contention without converting those opportunities.
“I feel like I’ve had my opportunities to be a multiple winner,” he said. “I had the win back in 2014, and then I’ve had my chances.”
There is even room for a little longstanding needling of Lowry.
“I joke to Shane all the time that if the tournament in 2022 was four rounds, I would have got him.”
Then comes the serious bit.
“I’d love to get another win around here for sure.”
Doing so this week will require navigating a field that includes defending champion Alex Norén. McIlroy arrives after finishing strongly at the Amgen Irish Open, although he was less satisfied with what the week did for his Race to Dubai position.
The eighth Race to Dubai still matters
Seven Race to Dubai titles apparently have not dulled the appeal of an eighth.
“I can’t believe I’m sitting here with seven,” McIlroy said.
Patrick Reed currently sits above him, but McIlroy was notably uninterested in presenting the chase as a personal duel. His motivation is simpler: he is second, he has ground to make up and the season is running out of places to do it.
“I’m certainly motivated to play well for the rest of the year.”
The intriguing wrinkle is that McIlroy is trying to compete while also making changes to his swing. His goals at this point of the season are unusually specific: where the club sits halfway back, where it reaches at the top and whether those technical changes can eventually survive the transition from the range to tournament golf.
That last part is the difficult one.
Technical improvement demands conscious repetition. Tournament golf works rather better when the player is not thinking about the position of the club every few seconds.
McIlroy described the challenge as finding a balance between the technical work and being able to “just go out and play instinctive golf”.
For somebody who has achieved almost everything available to him, that appetite for tinkering remains striking.
“Golf is a game that is like an endless pursuit, and I don’t think anyone will ever feel like they’ve mastered it.”
Success has created a different problem
McIlroy also offered an unusually candid admission about what happens after a player achieves one of the things he has spent years chasing.
Motivation can become complicated.
He acknowledged finding it difficult after major success to approach every subsequent week with the same emotional intensity. Majors remain straightforward enough as targets; ordinary tournament weeks can occasionally feel like the space between them.
“You want to bring the best of yourself every week, of course you do, but when you have success earlier in the year, sometimes it can lead to that, or it certainly led to that for me at times.”
He believes he has handled the problem better this year than last.
“These are all good problems to have.”
Wentworth may help because it carries more personal weight than most stops. There is history here, a home nearby and unfinished competitive business on the course.
There is also a wider question beginning to emerge around where McIlroy ultimately wants to spend his golfing time.
McIlroy still sees value in the DP World Tour
Much of the discussion around men’s professional golf currently concerns pathways, schedules and the relationship between the DP World Tour and PGA TOUR.
McIlroy’s view of the proposed structures was revealing. He argued that moving from the DP World Tour to a Challenger Series would represent a “very lateral move”, rather than meaningful career progression, and suggested the more important question is how many DP World Tour players should earn access to the PGA TOUR’s Championship Series.
His comments were less about protecting tradition for tradition’s sake than ensuring the DP World Tour remains a credible place for leading players to compete.
McIlroy remains a dual member and, while he expects to continue dividing his schedule between the two Tours during his prime years, he admitted that a different balance appeals to him eventually.
“One day maybe. One day that would be really, really nice and finish my career where I started my career. That would be something that I would love to do.”
There are practical obstacles. Maintaining PGA TOUR membership requires playing enough events, while remaining competitive means continuing to test himself against deep fields.
For now, McIlroy’s solution is to split his time as effectively as possible.
But the thought of a later-career return carries extra resonance at Wentworth. This is one of the DP World Tour’s defining weeks, a tournament McIlroy has already won and a place that now feels sufficiently familiar for him to call it home.
Wentworth offers something increasingly rare
McIlroy has travelled far enough through golf to appreciate simplicity when he finds it.
The West Course has frustrated him, rewarded him and repeatedly drawn him back into contention. Eleven years after that closing 66 transformed the 2014 championship, there is another trophy available and another Race to Dubai campaign requiring attention.
Yet amid the swing work, rankings, Tour politics and long-term career questions, one of the week’s attractions could hardly be more ordinary.
“Yeah, lovely to sleep in my own bed.”
For one of golf’s most travelled players, that may be Wentworth’s hardest advantage to quantify — and its easiest to understand.
