Rory McIlroy Has (Bizarrely) Struggled In The PGA Championship Over The Last Decade... That Can Change This Week

Rory McIlroy enters the 2026 PGA Championship expected to contend for yet another Major title, with the now six-time Major champion high in confidence after winning The Masters.

McIlroy has had great success in the PGA Championship, finishing T3rd in his 2010 debut at Whistling Straits and then again at Atlanta Athletic Club in 2011.

He won his second Major title at the 2012 PGA, storming to an eight-stroke victory, before beating the likes of Phil Mickelson and Rickie Fowler at Valhalla in 2014 for his second Wanamaker Trophy.

Since then, his record in the championship has been good - but it trails his form in the other three Majors.

Rory McIlroy's PGA Championship record vs the other majors

Since 2015, McIlroy has managed three top-10s in his 11 PGA Championship appearances compared to eight in The Masters (from 12 starts, including two wins and a runner-up), seven in the US Open (including two runner-ups) and six in The Open from just nine tournaments, having missed 2015 with injury and the 2020 edition being cancelled.

His best finish in the event since winning is T7th, in 2023, a result he has bettered 12 times in the other three Majors.

The closest he has got to winning a third Wanamaker came in 2022, when he ended the week three strokes back of the playoff between Justin Thomas and Will Zalatoris.

Seven players beat his two-under-par total at Southern Hills, where Thomas won his second PGA Championship.

He has only missed one cut in the PGA since winning in 2015, though, which is actually better than the other three.

Since 2015, he has missed the cut at The Masters twice, three times at the US Open and twice at The Open.

So the PGA Championship has been more of an event when he has a 'run of the mill' week to finish comfortably inside the cut line but short of contention.

Why has Rory McIlroy 'struggled' in the PGA recently?

There could be a few reasons for his somewhat lack of success in recent years.

One of those could be down to the course setup, with the PGA Championship venues resembling more of a standard PGA Tour setup compared to the other Majors, which are usually more exacting tests and allow the best players to rise to the top easier.

Another could be down to the fabled Green Jacket.

Since 2019, the PGA Championship has taken place just five weeks after The Masters - which was the only thing McIlroy truly desired since winning the third leg of the slam in 2014 at Royal Liverpool.

He may have arrived at PGA Championships slightly fatigued and on a comedown from another pressure-filled attempt at Augusta, but that is over now.

We can scrub last year's T47 at Quail Hollow as he clearly was struggling with the case of 'what next' after finally getting his shoulders into the Green Jacket, but his second Masters triumph has him in a fantastic head space right now.

"It feels a lot different," he said of winning at Augusta for the second time.

"Even winning felt different. I guess, you know, and I've spoke about this a lot, I felt like winning the Grand Slam was like this, was going to be this life-changing thing and in some ways it was, but in other ways I had to remember like, no, I still have a lot of my career left and I want to keep playing and keep competing.

"So this year was I think winning was validation for all the work that I've put in over the last few years to get myself back to this place where I'm winning majors.

"I'm excited for the road ahead. I'm excited for this week, I'm excited for Aronimink next week, Shinnecock, Birkdale, you know, like I feel like if anything I'm more motivated after what happened at Augusta this year than I've ever been."

Another reason may be because he had already won the PGA twice so he perhaps wasn't as motivated to win it again versus the other Majors.

He missed three consecutive US Open cuts from 2016-2018 and that kick-started something in him to become a better, more resilient US Open competitor on the USGA's brutally difficult setups.

He has publicly said a big goal of his is to win a US Open on one of the tough setups like Oakmont and Shinnecock Hills after dominating the 2011 US Open at a soft Congressional.

Whatever he has done, it has worked. He followed those MCs with six straight top-10s, including back-to-back runner-up finishes in 2023 and 2024, with a T19 last year at Oakmont amid his post-Masters blues.

He also has a fantastic Open Championship record, with six top-10s in his last nine starts. The Northern Irishman grew up playing links golf and is always buoyed by the home support in the the UK.

So while his PGA Championship record falls short of his performances in the other Majors since 2015, it does feel like this new Rory McIlroy 2.0 is set on nothing but more Major titles.

He is not in a post-Masters funk, is competitively sharp after dusting off the rust at Quail Hollow last week and is well overdue another challenge for the Wanamaker Trophy. It could well be this week in Pennsylvania.