How good has Rory McIlroy been over the last decade? A recently released stat gives away a truth that is well known but rarely admitted. Rory McIlroy has been at the top of the game regardless of his ‘major’ misses. 

Golf Monthly released a decade overview of the world ranking – how the world’s top-ten looked like this week in 2020 and in 2015. In 2015, McIlroy was the World No.1, followed by Henrik Stenson and Bubba Watson. Both of them have now joined LIV Golf. 

McIlroy, however, lost his No.1 spot to Jason Day soon after 2015. He regained the crown again in 2020. At that time, he was followed by a new batch of PGA Tour stars: Jon Rahm, Brooks Koepka, Justin Thomas,  and his contemporary Dustin Johnson. Jordan Spieth, who was sixth in 2015, had slipped out of the top ten in 2020 (he is now 64th). 

In fact, between 2015 and 2020, almost the entire ranking shuffled except for Dustin Johnson. Jim Furyk, who was 7th in 2015, joined the PGA Tour Champions around 2021. Adam Scott, Jason Day, Sergio Garcia, and Justin Rose, all of whom were inside the top ten, had slipped out of that bracket by 2020.

Another five years, McIlroy, now 2nd, is trailed (and led) by a bunch of new faces and some of his old colleagues. Xander Schauffele, Collin Morikawa, Ludvig Aberg, Viktor Hovland are new joinees. Whereas Justin Thomas, old mate, slipped from 4th to 9th. Scottie Scheffler, of course, leads the way by a wide margin.

Notably, Rory McIlroy first broke inside the top-100 in 2008, and first took the world no.1 spot in 2012. He soon had to relinquish that throne to a resurgent Tiger Woods in 2013. Once again, McIlroy was back on top in 2014, before Jason Day took over.

Interestingly, back in 2023, when asked about whether he cared for world ranking or not, the four-time major winner was pretty forthright. “Yeah, of course, I care about it. I think it’s a really cool thing to be ranked number one in whatever you do.” Regardless of his current position, fans were in awe of how consistent McIlroy has been for a decade.

Fans believe Rory McIlroy doesn’t get enough credit for his performance 

McIlroy’s major drought so overwhelmingly dominates the discourse around him that his jaw-dropping consistency is pushed behind. However, the Ulsterman has won a whopping 19 times on the PGA Tour in the same span. Since 2021, he has raked in at least two titles each year.

Again, his near-misses in major and an unfinished Grand Slam quest somehow cloud his consistency on top of the men’s golf. Referring to that, one fan wrote, “It’s about time people give Rory the credit he deserves… His consistency at the top level of the game is incredible…”. “You guys may not like it, but Rory’s consistency is unmatched,” another seconded the opinion.

A third commented, “Everyone slags Rory off, but the rankings don’t lie. Most consistent player in the world over the last 10 years, and this year looking better than ever. On a bad week, he still manages Top 5 in tour events.”

Some, however, pointed out the inconsistency in world rankings in 2025. LIV golfers don’t receive OWGR points, which all but makes them ineligible for world ranking. One user swatted aside McIlroy’s achievement by saying, “OWGR no longer matters and won’t matter until it accurately counts the LIV guys.” Another voiced the same thought: “LIV golfers are better. No way Rahm is not in the top 10 and other LIV golfers. So the last list is incorrect and a PGA monopoly list of lies.”

There is, of course, some merit in criticizing the current OWGR leaderboard. However, in all fairness, the top five in the world would see little change even with LIV golfers. Except for Jon Rahm and Joaquin Niemann, none of the LIV pros have shown consistency week in and week out.

Moreover, even though Rahm has been reigning supreme in LIV Golf, whether he would’ve toppled McIlroy from the 2nd spot is a matter of debate. Even if he did, the Northern Irishman would still have been within the top three, given his performance over the last couple of years.

Actually, there is an argument to be made that Rory McIlroy is in an even better form now than he was ten years or five years back as the world’s best player. As preposterous as it may sound, his stats do attest to that claim. 

McIlroy now ranks 1st in Strokes Gained: Total, 1st in SG: Off the Tee, 16th in SG: Approach to Green, 8th in Scrambling, and 10th in SG: Putting. In 2020-21, McIlroy was 7th, 4th, 35th, 131st, and 66th in the same categories, respectively. A year before that, the Ulsterman ranked 12th, 6th, 19th, 57th, and 122nd, respectively. McIlroy is currently teeing off in his last tournament before the Masters. The Ulsterman opened with an even-par 70 at the Texas Children’s Houston Open.