To describe the sentiment that dominated the game of golf for much of the last 12 months, this one-word phrase likely suffices:
Indeed, in ways large and small, 2025 turned out to be a year in which patience was rewarded. The most obvious example came in April, when Rory McIlroy ended an 11-year winless drought in majors, beating Justin Rose in a playoff to claim the Masters title in his 17th appearance at Augusta National. An agonizingly bumpy final round only made the victory sweeter as McIlroy became the sixth golfer to claim the men’s career Grand Slam.
Yet McIlroy wasn’t the only golfer to turn a career chapter in 2025. So did Scottie Scheffler (winning majors for the first time beyond Magnolia Lane), J.J. Spaun (giving journeymen a hero with his out-of-nowhere U.S. Open triumph) and Happy Gilmore (coming out of retirement to save a sport). TGL played its long-awaited inaugural season, Tommy Fleetwood grabbed his long-awaited first PGA Tour winner and Cypress Point made a long-awaited return to golf’s competitive spotlight. Heck, even reasonable solutions to slow play seemed to emerge after centuries decades years of hand-wringing.
All these moments and more can be found in Golf Digest’s top 25 Newsmakers of the year. Our annual list explores the individuals, teams and events that helped define the year. As we acknowledge every year, some are obvious (a road Ryder Cup win for Europe), some unexpected (had you heard of Brian Rolapp or Craig Kessler before this spring?), some happy (the rise of Jeeno Thitikul) some tragic (the L.A. fires) and some still unresolved (will there ever be a deal between the PGA Tour and the PIF?).
We hope this provides an entertaining way to recall the year that was and frame where the game is going. —Ryan Herrington
It was his year. A year that delivered what everyone wanted for him but feared he couldn’t do. A year where the victory lap took some unexpected twists and curious drops, including a homecoming and home triumph. A year that at times transformed his beloved arena into a theater of suffering—but didn’t keep him from emerging intact on the other side.
A year that could only belong to Rory McIlroy.
The Northern Irishman, who turned 35 in May, enjoyed an auspicious start to his season, contending in Dubai, winning at Pebble Beach and launching his tech-infused simulator golf league with Tiger Woods. In March, he outlasted J.J. Spaun in a Monday finish for his second career Players Championship title. His TPC Sawgrass triumph was his 28th tour win and 43rd worldwide victory, a testament to his resilience in a sport where consistency is elusive. And yet, because his major total of four remained frozen in time for more than a decade—a number that refused to climb despite countless opportunities—he continued to be viewed mainly through the prism of who he once was and what he could become again, a stigma that could only be altered by changing that “four” to “five.”
It looked as if nothing was going to change at Augusta after McIlroy was seven shots back to end Day 1. Only McIlroy answered with vigor with back-to-back 66s, owning a two-shot heading into Sunday, his first 54-hole Masters lead since the first time Augusta broke his heart back in 2011. Sunday was set to be the crowning achievement of McIlroy’s illustrious career, or its most devastating chapter.
What transpired on April 13 defies compression into tidy sentences; the weight of it, the scale of it, demands to be experienced in full. Go back now and relive the round that has crystallized into time, the one that culminated with McIlroy collapsing to the earth, overcome by the pursuit of the green jacket that was now in his grasp.
“It’s a dream come true. I have dreamt about that moment for as long as I can remember,” McIlroy said in his new wardrobe. “There were points in my career where I didn’t know if I would have this nice garment over my shoulders, but I didn’t make it easy today. I certainly didn’t make it easy. I was nervous. It was one of the toughest days I’ve ever had on the golf course.”
In the days following McIlroy’s grand slam triumph, there was the belief he would finally be liberated from his quest. Instead, his post-Masters victory lap spiraled into something disorienting, punctuated by media confrontations at the PGA Championship and U.S. Open that felt jarringly out of character. When he acknowledged his frustration with press coverage, insisting on his right to act as he pleased, it felt like watching someone torch the foundation of their public identity. For a player whose enormous popularity rests on being golf’s moral north star, the behavior seemed not merely incompatible with who we think he is but almost willfully self-destructive.
Which is why the Open Championship proved just as vital to McIlroy’s year as the Masters. Scottie Scheffler lifted the claret jug, yet somehow he felt like a footnote to McIlroy, who competed for his countrymen an hour from where he learned the game as a boy. What followed McIlroy through Royal Portrush that week transcended a golf tournament, a communion between athlete and homeland, something that defies neat categorization. The roars were deafening, sustained, primal; the kind that cannot be manufactured, erupting purely from instinct and collective soul. All of it for a man who finished seven shots back.
“There’s a lot of gratitude, and yeah, a lot of pride,” McIlroy reflected afterward. “A lot of pride that I am from these shores, and in part with the way I’ve played and advocated for this little country. For me to be in front of everyone here at home and to get that reception up the last—absolutely incredible. I’ll remember that for a long time.” A month later, McIlroy answered that love by winning the Irish Open at the K Club in a playoff, the circle somehow complete. But he was about to experience something far less hospitable.
Every fear about what Bethpage’s crowds might become materialized at the Ryder Cup. Between the early blowout and a crowd that seemed more gladiatorial than golf, the partisan spectacle turned vicious, with McIlroy absorbing the cruelest of it. Three days of taunts about his marriage, his family, the ugliest rumors dragged into daylight, all while he tried to lead his team to victory. A lack of basic humanity that was staggering. Yet McIlroy won three and a half points in his first four matches, then pushed World No. 1 Scheffler to the final hole on Sunday. It was a performance that revealed more about his character than his golf game ever could, and a window into the fortitude required not just to endure that week but to excel within it.
McIlroy’s year closed on quieter, more triumphant ground. He captured his seventh Race to Dubai title in November, surpassing Seve Ballesteros on the all-time European Tour Order of Merit wins and moving within one of Colin Montgomerie’s record. He finished his season at the Australian Open, perhaps a signal of future ambitions, a more globally-minded approach to his schedule. Whatever lies ahead, his present is undeniable: McIlroy ends 2025 as the sport’s gravitational center. —Joel Beall
RELATED: 57 things that happened to Rory McIlroy in 2025
The best press conference in golf this year came courtesy of Scottie Scheffler on Tuesday at the Open Championship, when he faced a room full of reporters and said, “this is not a fulfilling life.” What he meant was that even victory at the highest level—which he has achieved more than any other golfer in the past three years—comes with only a fleeting sense of joy, and that if you want to live a fulfilled life, you better seek deeper satisfaction.
The humble Texan spoke at length, and without either shame or fear of being mocked, with quotes like, “sometimes I don’t see the point” and “it’s an unsatisfying venture.” It was the rare kind of openness that inspired people like me to write long pieces about his perspective, and that also inspired more than a few bad misinterpretations. Had he lost his desire? Was he ungrateful? Was this whining?
No, no and no, but especially no on point one—a few days later, he would prove his desire was stronger than ever when he captured the claret jug at Royal Portrush for his second major of the year.
For Scheffler, 2025 was the year when he diversified his greatness. At 29, he’d already amassed a hall-of-fame résumé, and all he could add was variety. He started that mission at Quail Hollow in May, winning the PGA Championship to bag a new major along with his two Masters titles, and took his next leap forward at Portrush, proving he could win in Europe on a links course.
The completeness of Scheffler game wasn’t really in doubt, but these wins to go with four other tour titles in the last 12 months, certified it. So did his consistently superior performance in a host of other metrics: In 2025, Scheffler was first on the tour in … (takes deep breathe):
Strokes gained/total (2.73)
SG/approach (1.291)
SG/tee to green (2.361)
Scoring average (68.131)
Scoring average actual (67.99)
Round 1 scoring (67.45)
Round 2 scoring (68.00)
Round 3 scoring (68.40)
Round 4 scoring (68.10)
Front nine scoring (33.71)
Back nine scoring (34.28)
Early scoring (67.88)
Late scoring (68.10)
Bogey avoidance (10.56 percent)
Par-4 scoring (3.89)
Bounce Back (36.36 percent)
Official Money ($27,659,550)
The fact that he can wrestle with the ephemeral nature of the joy that follows conquest, while still wanting that conquest more than ever before … well, this is fear-inspiring stuff. The best compliment we can pay Scheffler in 2025 is that if he hadn’t finished 2024 by cutting his hand in a Christmas Day ravioli incident, thus placing a minor speed bump in his tour of dominance, he probably would have won the Masters, too. And while he’s not No. 1 on this list, you should keep in mind when you read the top entry that in his final act of the year, on a Sunday in Long Island, Scottie Scheffler went head-to-head with a noteworthy opponent. It may not have mattered very much by then, but he won that, too. —Shane Ryan
