Golf enjoyed a rare double at the 2025 BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards after Rory McIlroy lived up to his favourite’s billing by scooping the individual trophy, while Europe’s Ryder Cup team pulled off something of a surprise by winning the public vote for the Team of the Year title.
McIlroy proved the popular choice by the voting public in a year that saw him clinch the career Grand Slam with victory at the Masters and playing a key role in Europe’s first Ryder Cup win in America since 2012.
The 36-year-old also won the Irish Open for a second time, with further successes at the Players Championship and the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, before topping off a stellar year with his seventh Race to Dubai title.
McIlroy was one of six nominees for the award, the others being F1 World Champion Lando Norris, England women’s footballers Hannah Hampton and Chloe Kelly, England women’s rugby union star Ellie Kildunne and world no.1 darts player Luke Littler.
The Northern Irishman is just the third golfer to win BBC Sports Personality of the Year, after Dai Rees in 1957 and Nick Faldo in 1989.
“Wow,” McIlroy said after receiving the award at the glittering ceremony held in Salford. “2025 has been the year I made my dreams come true. From Augusta to the Ryder Cup and everything in between. It’s the year dreams are made of. I have a lot of people to thank. Firstly, the public, my family, my mum and my dad. They sacrificed so much for me. I wouldn’t be here without them, so thank you. My wife Erica and my daughter Poppy, they are what holds me together. My rocks. They couldn’t be here tonight, but I can’t wait to get back tomorrow and celebrate this with them. I am very honoured to get my hands on this trophy. Hopefully I can challenge to get it again next year!”
While McIlroy’s SPOTY win was hotly tipped, Team Europe’s victory in the Team of the Year category was far less certain, in the face of stiff competition from England Lionesses’ retention of the UEFA European Women’s Championship and the England’s victory in the Women’s Rugby World Cup. But Luke Donald’s team’s 15-13 away victory in the cauldron of New York captured the public’s imagination to carry them to the award, marking the seventh time that a Ryder Cup team has captured the honour, and the first since 2010.
“As a lot of other sports people in this room know that it’s an honour to be a part of these teams,” said McIlroy as he collected the award for Team Europe alongside Tommy Fleetwood. “We’re up here as two of the 12 players, but we also had the captain, vice-captains and all of the backroom team – we could not have done what we did without all of them.”