Yes, let’s be very clear, Rory McIlroy won the 2025 Pebble Beach Pro-Am Championship despite what should have been a tournament-wrecking horror stretch on the back 9 on Day 2. Here he bogeyed 4 holes in the space of 6 holes. But Rory has always loved defying the odds and he did it in spectacular fashion, playing some of the very best golf of his career at one of America’s most iconic courses.
This US$20million signature event brought together for the first time in 2025 most of the world’s top 50 golfers. Normally a bogey run of the magnitude McIlroy suffered would have killed off any chance of winning. Fortunately for the Irishman the sheer calibre of his golf on the other 66 holes enabled him to defy traditional thinking which claims you can’t win a golf tournament in Round 1 or 2 but you can lose it, especially when your game falls apart as dramatically as it did for McIlroy at Pebble
Beach.
This win was his 27th on the USPGA Tour and having followed his career closely, I‘m not sure I can recall too many occasions when he has played any better golf than he did over those last two days. He shot 65 on Saturday in appalling conditions and 66 on the last day.
Watching those last two rounds of McIlroy’s was to watch a magician at work. Off the tee he was impeccable and super long, the best part of 15-20 yards ahead of his opponents on most holes. His short game was second to none. Time and time again his deft touch around the greens saw him get up and down to save par, often from the lush thick rough that rings the tight small greens at Pebble Beach. The hole in one on Day 1 which he pulled off on the par 3 seventh which measured just a tad over 100 yards underlined the deadly precision of his short game. He flew his wedge from the cliff
top tee straight down into the hole. Also, his putting was very solid throughout the 4 rounds.
He may not have won a Major for ten years, but I’m prepared to bet he will win one this year if he can replicate his Pebble Beach form. Scottie Scheffler remains, quite rightly, indisputably the Number 1 golfer in the world. He played at Pebble Beach, yet finished 6 shots behind McIlroy, another pointer to the peerless quality of McIlroy’s golf. Sure, it was Scheffler’s first start in 2025, but he was still in very good form, shooting 3 rounds in the 60’s and a 2 under par 70 in the other.
But what do they say Rory? “One swallow does not a summer make”.
However, making some hay while the sun was shining in the Middle East were Daniel Hillier and rookie pro Kazuma Kobori who continues to make a good fist of things in this first full year as a playing pro.
Both ironically finished in a share of 24 th place, each pocketing E23,000 or approximately NZ$43,000. Lydia Ko too had yet another useful pay day when she finished in a tie for 6 th place at the Tournament of Champions at Lake Nona in Florida,
Lydia’s home course where she has performed well over the years. She looked likely to have another top 3 finish this year after shooting rounds of 67 and 65 on Days 2 and 3. However a wayward front nine which included 3 bogeys took her out of contention on the last day, even though she went on a bit of a birdie run after that, playing the last 12 holes in 5 under and picking up a cheque for US$120,000, rounding out a very productive week
for our leading golfers.
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