What ‘excites’ Rory McIlroy? He gave an aspirational answer

Rory McIlroy has done just about everything he dreamed of doing. He has won everywhere, filled his bank account with more money than he could spend in a lifetime and become one of the greatest players ever to play the game in the process.

Now 36, with plenty of grey hair and an understanding of his professional mortality, McIlroy is frank as he looks at his career’s final chapters. He has been saying this for quite some time now, that he — Rory McIlroy, career Grand Slam champion current active face of the sport — will prioritize what he wants and let the rest float away. Such was the case this year when he skipped three of the PGA Tour’s Signature Events and a FedEx Cup Playoff event. That’s the trade-off for playing a more “global” schedule that will see McIlroy play in India and Australia later this year while the rest of the PGA Tour’s stable of stars rest in their offseason.

Those moves, he said, came align with the late-career whims of tennis legend Roger Federer, through which McIlroy wants to focus not on money or trying to vacuum up as many trophies as possible, but on experiences that fill his soul.

“I want to go and play in different places in the world and experience things that I haven’t experienced before,” McIlroy said Tuesday at Wentworth Golf Club ahead of the BMW PGA Championship. “Twenty years into a career, or 18 years, to be able to do things for the first time. So go to India and play for the first time or whatever that may be, that excites me. I don’t want to name a tournament, but you’re going back to the same place, the same thing 15, 20 years in a row, it can get a little bit monotonous and a little bit tedious.

“I had a chat with Roger Federer, I don’t know, a few years ago, sort of at the end of his career, and he was saying he wanted to go and play a lot of the places he could never play in his career. So some of the smaller 250 events just because not a lot of people had never seen him play tennis before.”

McIlroy’s win last week at the Amgen Irish Open was a reminder of what he has been telling us. That for Rory McIlroy, at this point in his illustrious career, all that matters is what speaks to him: the majors, national opens, the Ryder Cup, iconic venues and historic tournaments. Everything else is water off a five-time major winner’s back.

And so you might have heard McIlroy say recently that while some elite athletes have a problem letting go — they’ll play and play and play until reality forces them to stop — he won’t have that issue. He’s 18 years into a career he still can’t believe he has. When the time comes to hang it up, he’ll do so, popping up here and there at major championships. Until then, he will play out the rest of his career on his terms.

“I don’t want to be grinding out here at 50 years of age,” McIlroy said, reiterating comments he made at the Players Championship. “I’ll turn up and play the majors and have a nice time but you know, whenever I’m done, I’m done, whenever that is. That’s certainly not right now, but I’m certainly closer to that point now than I was in 2007 when I turned pro.

“Again, at this point, I want to play golf when I want to play golf. I want to play in the locations that I love to go to, and I want to play the majors and the Ryder Cup. That’s it. I’m not going to be going by minimums or anything else. Like I’ll obviously do my bit to make sure I keep my membership and all that on certain tours, but I’m going to play where I want to play.”

It’s aspirational to reach a point in life where you can follow a path carved only by joy and fulfillment. But Rory McIlroy has earned the right to write the final chapters of his career in the manner he wants, on the courses he wants and playing for the trophies he cares about.

And win some, while he’s at it.