Elliott Heath
It's been a decade since Rory McIlroy's last Major win in what was a stellar year in 2014 for the Northern Irishman, but was he playing that much better than he is now? Let's dig in to the stats to find out...
It's a no-contest in terms of success as McIlroy won The Open at Hoylake in 2014 before backing it up with his second PGA Championship victory at Valhalla a month later to take him to four Majors in the blink of an eye.
McIlroy also won the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, finished as European No.1 and topped the PGA Tour money list in a year for the ages.
Fast forward a decade and there are still no extra Majors in the win column, and 2024 became a year of near misses headlined by his heart-breaking US Open loss to Bryson DeChambeau.
McIlroy has won three times in 2024 but with also near misses at Wentworth and the Irish Open there has been plenty of frustration - but his game has nevertheless but at a consistently top level.
So there's been a big gap in the results, but what about the standard of golf? Well to find that out our news editor Elliott Heath took a deep dive into all the main statistical categories for 2014 Rory versus 2024 Rory with some eye-opening results.
Based on Strokes Gained and his rank on the PGA Tour it's clear that 2014 Rory was playing better almost across the board, bettering 2024 Rory in almost all areas.
There are a couple of major talking points in here too, so take a look at the full stats below and we'll go through the main takeaways.
Rory McIlroy stats - 2014 vs 2024
(Ranking is on the PGA Tour)
The first thing you notice is that from McIlroy being the stand-out player on the PGA Tour in Strokes Gained he's now been caught and overtaken by Scottie Scheffler with his insane consistency and also Xander Schauffele.
So McIlroy has gone from topping three main Strokes Gained stats to 'only' in the top six - the result being that even when he's motoring in top gear he's unable to pull as far clear and dominate like he once could.
McIlroy is driving the ball 10 yards further and with more accuracy now than in 2014, but in another sign that the field have caught up his Strokes Gained off the tee mark has actually been cut as despite his actual numbers going up he's not getting as much advantage over the rest of the field.
There is some good news in that he's better now around the greens, and his scrambling improvement is the best of the lot - so he's sharpened up his short game.
McIlroy is actually averaging slightly fewer putts per round this year too, but from the top putter on Tour in 2014, in 2024 he slipped down to 42nd.
Rory McIlroy stats - 2014 vs 2024 scoring
It's a clean sweep for 2014 McIlroy in the scoring stats, and although the differences look wafer thin, his PGA Tour ranking shows that while he's only just dropped his level ever so slightly, the standard around him has risen.
He's half a stroke a round worse off on average, but when you add all that up it can make a huge difference over a season and even of the course of a Major championship.
That alone saw McIlroy drop from first to 52nd, as did his drop-off of making about half a birdie less per round and a combination of making fewer eagles and more bogeys is never a recipe for success.
One stat that McIlroy may really want to look into is his scoring in the first two rounds of tournaments - where he is now almost a stroke and a half worse off than in 2014.
He's been a great front-runner so to not get that early advantage can really hurt - but while his first round stats are a worry his second round is quite alarming where he's not far off a full stroke worse off. McIlroy really doesn't like Fridays.
Of course, despite the stats over a season McIlroy has still been there or thereabouts almost every time he tees it up, but as he's made recent swing changes to try and become even more consistent it's worth noting that the stats back up his need to improve.
