‘Season is not over:’ Defiant Rory McIlroy flees East Lake for U.S. Open visit

The 2025 PGA Tour season officially came to an end on Sunday at the 2025 Tour Championship. Though Rory McIlroy’s finish at East Lake was disappointing, this year has been a historic one for the now five-time major champion. However, McIlroy quickly reminded reporters Sunday night that the pro golf season is far from over.

Before leaving East Lake, McIlroy conducted a quick scrum with reporters and was much more interested in talking about the future than looking in the rearview at his less-than-stellar FedEx Cup Playoffs performance. That future includes a busy stretch of important tournaments in the coming months.

Then Rory jetted off to New York City, where he was spotted in the crowd at the U.S. Open tennis event in Queens just hours after he putted out on 18.

McIlroy refuses to look back with more golf to play

History will likely look back on 2025 as one of McIlroy’s best on the PGA Tour. He captured two huge Tour wins early in the year. He won his very first Tour start at the Signature Event AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

Then he won his second-career Players Championship title at TPC Sawgrass in March, along with its $4.5 million winner’s check.

Of course, McIlroy’s season will be best remembered for his dramatic victory at the Masters, which represented his long-awaited first win at Augusta National and the completion of the career Grand Slam.

It did not end the way he would have liked, though. After finishing the regular season in second, McIlroy skipped the first tournament of the FedEx Cup Playoffs. He finished T12 at the BMW Championship, then faltered to a T23 finish at the Tour Championship.

But McIlroy had no interest in looking backward on the season that was on Sunday night at East Lake, defiantly focusing on the season still to come.

When asked to summarize his Tour season, McIlroy didn’t take the bait.

“Yeah, the season is not over for me. I’ve still got a lot of golf coming up,” McIlroy said. “I refuse to call this the end of the season.”

McIlroy’s ‘important’ closing stretch to 2025 season

He did have plenty to say about his upcoming stretch, which includes stops at the DP World Tour’s Irish Open and BMW PGA Championship. He’s attempting to chase down his seventh-career Race to Dubai victory, the season-long DP World Tour title. McIlroy is currently two behind Collin Montgomerie’s all-time record of eight.

“Yeah, it means a lot. Those are two big weeks for me to try to extend my lead in the Race to Dubai,” McIlroy explained. “That’s become a pretty important thing for me. I’m chasing a little bit of history there. I want to put my head down and play well those couple weeks.”

He continued: “They’re sort of like two home tournaments for me, Ireland being my national open, and then we live pretty much on the course at Wentworth.”

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Two weeks after the BMW PGA, McIlroy will compete in one of the most important events of the year for anyone: the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black.

“Big couple weeks to try to play well but also sharpen up different aspects of the game going into the Ryder Cup,” he said on Sunday.

But Rory’s season doesn’t end there. After the Ryder Cup, he’s expected to head to India in October for the DP World India Championship, Dubai in November for the DP World Tour Championship and Australia in December for the Australian Open.

Rory spotted at U.S. Open in New York to take in tennis

With major season and the FedEx Cup Playoffs behind him and an incredibly busy stretch ahead of him, McIlroy headed straight to New York from East Lake Sunday night for some R&R.

And he wasted no time in doing so.

Approximately three hours after his post-round interview at the Tour Championship, McIlroy was spotted in the crowd at the U.S. Open tennis tournament in Queens.