\tAnybody who cares a jot about the sport of golf will believe that McIlroy would be a deserving winner of SPOTY. Qute apart from anything else, he actually has a personality, which is more than you can say for many of the past winners of this prestigious award. Do you remember Zara Tindall\u2019s dreadful acceptance speech?\u00a0<\/p>\n
\tAs somebody who writes about this wonderful sport of ours, and has done for years, there is nothing I would like to see more than McIlroy being crowned SPOTY, especially as he has already made clear his intention to actually attend the event.<\/p>\n
\tBut it is not going to happen, and it is not going to happen for two very good reasons:<\/p>\n
\t\t\tBBC Sport simply does not show any live golf. Back in the day, they used to screen The Open, the BMW PGA Championship and a host of other golf tournaments. They shoehorned brief highlights of the Ryder Cup and The Open into their schedules at a time of day when nobody was watching. And that means that when the focus turns on McIlroy on the big night they will be able to screen little or no highlights of what he has achieved in 2025. To say the very least, it is pretty poor.\t\t\tIn the 71-year history of SPOTY, only two golfers have ever won – Dai Rees in 1957 and Nick Faldo in 1989. It is also worth noting that they had little opposition in those years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t![\"Rory](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Golfshake_-_Rory_McIlroy_KD_New_2025_8_m3vba0.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\t(Image Credit: Kevin Diss Photography<\/a>)<\/p>\n \tThis is an event that has been dominated by athletes, Formula One drivers and footballers. McIlroy won two majors in 2014 but Lewis Hamilton beat him. In 2018, Georgia Hall became only the fourth English female to win a major at the Women\u2019s Open but was not even offered a SPOTY nomination. Matt Fitzpatrick suffered the same fate four years despite making history by winning the US Open in 2022. Now McIlroy is up against England footballers Chloe Kelly and Hannah Hampton, rugby union player Ellie Kildunne, F1 world champion Lando Norris and darts world champion Luke Littler.\u00a0<\/p>\n \tWho would ever have believed that a darts player would make the final list of six for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award? And I confidently expect him to finish ahead of McIlroy, which speaks volumes. For the record, I am a huge darts fan. I have attended the World Championship at Alexandra Palace and the Premier League darts final at the O2 Arena. These are incredible occasions, generating a fabulous, fun atmosphere. But let\u2019s get something straight here and now – darts is NOT a proper sport. It is a pub game.\u00a0<\/p>\n \tI begrudge Littler none of the adulation he has received but he is most definitely not a sportsman. McIlroy, on the other hand, is a proper athlete.<\/p>\n \tAlex Kay-Jelski, director of BBC Sport, said: “This has been a breathtaking year for sport, driven by athletes whose performances belong in the history books. Each one has delivered moments of pure brilliance that have defined 2025. It’s been incredible to watch, and I can’t wait to honour their achievements, and to see who the nation chooses as the BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2025.”<\/p>\n \tIt is ironic that so much of the sport we now watch on TV is actually screened by either Sky or TNT Sports rather than on the good old BBC.\u00a0<\/p>\n \tI also have to say that I don\u2019t think the Ryder Cup team has a snowball\u2019s chance in hell of being named Team of the Year. What Luke Donald\u2019s European side achieved in New York<\/a> in the face of the most hostile environment I have ever seen at a golf event should not be underestimated. The entire team were sensational.\u00a0<\/p>\n \tIn any other year they might be considered to be shoo-ins for that prize but there was the small matter of England\u2019s women footballers winning the European Championship. So as good a year as this has been for European golf, don\u2019t expect to see anybody involved with the sport picking up any SPOTY awards.<\/p>\n Derek Clements<\/a> is a seasoned sports journalist and regular Golfshake contributor, specialising in tour coverage, opinion pieces, and feature writing. With a long career in national newspapers and golf media, he has reported on the game across Europe, the United States and Australia. A passionate golfer, he has played and reviewed numerous renowned courses, with personal favourites including Pebble Beach, Kingsbarns, Aldeburgh, Old Thorns and the K Club. His love of the game informs his thoughtful commentary on both professional golf and the wider golfing community.<\/p>\n Be part of the action with a selection of unique golf tournament experiences, from playing in a pro-am with the stars to watching the action at golf\u2019s most illustrious events. Whether it\u2019s the Masters or The Open, The Ryder Cup or WM Phoenix Open, build your own bespoke package with the experts at Golfbreaks.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy has made the shortlist of six for the\u00a0BBC\u2019s Sports Personality of the Year (SPOTY). But it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":351926,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-351925","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-golf","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351925\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}