Which Golfers Have Won The BBC Sports Personality Of The Year Award?

Rory McIlroy is hoping to become just the third golfer to be named BBC Sports Personality of the Year at the 70th annual awards ceremony

Nick Faldo with the trophies he won in 1989
Nick Faldo is the last golfer to win the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award - coming in 1989 after his first Masters victory
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Joel Kulasingham
By
published

The BBC Sports Personality of the Year award, perhaps Britain’s best known sports award, is handed out every year to a British sportsperson, based on a public vote.

Rory McIlroy was one of six athletes nominated for the award this year, alongside Mary Earps (football), Stuart Broad (cricket), Frankie Dettori (racing), Katarina Johnson-Thompson (athletics) and Alfie Hewett (tennis).

Only two golfers have won the award in its 69-year history.

Welsh golfer Dai Rees was the first in 1957, following Great Britain’s triumph in the Ryder Cup - where they won for the first time in 24 years.

Dai Rees holds the Ryder Cup trophy in 1957

Great Britain's 1957 Ryder Cup captain Dai Rees was the first golfer to win the award

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Nick Faldo won the award in 1989 after he claimed his second Major and first of three Masters titles. Faldo also won the Volvo PGA Championship, British Masters, French Open and World Match Play Championship in 1989.

McIlroy is once again nominated after finishing second in votes for the award in 2014 despite winning two Majors, a WGC, the BMW PGA Championship and the Ryder Cup.

One of his many highlights this year included a fifth Ryder Cup, where he helped guide Team Europe to a 16.5-11.5 victory over Team USA, with an individual record of four wins and one loss during the event - his best ever performance in the biennial Europe vs USA match.

Rory McIlroy poses on one knee alongside the Race To Dubai trophy while holding up five fingers - the number of times he has won the prize

McIlroy won his fifth Race to Dubai title in another successful year

(Image credit: Getty Images)

McIlroy also won twice in 2023 at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic and Genesis Scottish Open, while claiming three top 10s in the Majors including a solo-second at the US Open where he finished one shot behind winner Wyndham Clark.

Off the course, the 34-year-old took on the role of outspoken leader and elder statesman of the sport amid golf's contentious PGA Tour-LIV Golf civil war in 2023. He stepped down from the PGA Tour's board, though, so will likely have more focus on the course in 2024 where he looks to end his Major drought - which spans back to the 2014 PGA Championship.

McIlroy is an outsider with the bookies to receive the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award this year, with Lionesses goalkeeper Mary Earps the favourite after England reached the Women’s World Cup final for the first time.

Joel Kulasingham
Joel Kulasingham
News Writer

Joel Kulasingham is freelance writer for Golf Monthly. He has worked as a sports reporter and editor in New Zealand for more than five years, covering a wide range of sports including golf, rugby and football. He moved to London in 2023 and writes for several publications in the UK and abroad. He is a life-long sports nut and has been obsessed with golf since first swinging a club at the age of 13. These days he spends most of his time watching, reading and writing about sports, and playing mediocre golf at courses around London.

Latest