Why Rory McIlroy probably won't win BBC SPOTY award

Rory McIlroy has made the shortlist of six for the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year (SPOTY). But it would be fanciful to believe that he has any chance of winning.

He had a stellar year in 2025, winning The Masters to complete the career grand slam, the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, the Players Championship and the Irish Open. And he capped it all with an inspirational performance to lead Europe to their first Ryder Cup victory on American soil since 2012. He was also crowned Race to Dubai champion for a seventh time. By anybody’s standards, it has been a season to remember for the world number two.

Anybody who cares a jot about the sport of golf will believe that McIlroy would be a deserving winner of SPOTY. Qute apart from anything else, he actually has a personality, which is more than you can say for many of the past winners of this prestigious award. Do you remember Zara Tindall’s dreadful acceptance speech? 

As somebody who writes about this wonderful sport of ours, and has done for years, there is nothing I would like to see more than McIlroy being crowned SPOTY, especially as he has already made clear his intention to actually attend the event.

But it is not going to happen, and it is not going to happen for two very good reasons:

1. BBC Sport simply does not show any live golf. Back in the day, they used to screen The Open, the BMW PGA Championship and a host of other golf tournaments. They shoehorned brief highlights of the Ryder Cup and The Open into their schedules at a time of day when nobody was watching. And that means that when the focus turns on McIlroy on the big night they will be able to screen little or no highlights of what he has achieved in 2025. To say the very least, it is pretty poor.
2. In the 71-year history of SPOTY, only two golfers have ever won - Dai Rees in 1957 and Nick Faldo in 1989. It is also worth noting that they had little opposition in those years. 

(Image Credit: Kevin Diss Photography)

This is an event that has been dominated by athletes, Formula One drivers and footballers. McIlroy won two majors in 2014 but Lewis Hamilton beat him. In 2018, Georgia Hall became only the fourth English female to win a major at the Women’s Open but was not even offered a SPOTY nomination. Matt Fitzpatrick suffered the same fate four years despite making history by winning the US Open in 2022. Now McIlroy is up against England footballers Chloe Kelly and Hannah Hampton, rugby union player Ellie Kildunne, F1 world champion Lando Norris and darts world champion Luke Littler. 

Who would ever have believed that a darts player would make the final list of six for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award? And I confidently expect him to finish ahead of McIlroy, which speaks volumes. For the record, I am a huge darts fan. I have attended the World Championship at Alexandra Palace and the Premier League darts final at the O2 Arena. These are incredible occasions, generating a fabulous, fun atmosphere. But let’s get something straight here and now - darts is NOT a proper sport. It is a pub game. 

I begrudge Littler none of the adulation he has received but he is most definitely not a sportsman. McIlroy, on the other hand, is a proper athlete.

Alex Kay-Jelski, director of BBC Sport, said: "This has been a breathtaking year for sport, driven by athletes whose performances belong in the history books. Each one has delivered moments of pure brilliance that have defined 2025. It's been incredible to watch, and I can't wait to honour their achievements, and to see who the nation chooses as the BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2025."

It is ironic that so much of the sport we now watch on TV is actually screened by either Sky or TNT Sports rather than on the good old BBC. 

I also have to say that I don’t think the Ryder Cup team has a snowball’s chance in hell of being named Team of the Year. What Luke Donald’s European side achieved in New York in the face of the most hostile environment I have ever seen at a golf event should not be underestimated. The entire team were sensational. 

In any other year they might be considered to be shoo-ins for that prize but there was the small matter of England’s women footballers winning the European Championship. So as good a year as this has been for European golf, don’t expect to see anybody involved with the sport picking up any SPOTY awards.