{"id":23640,"date":"2026-02-11T15:13:01","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T13:13:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/rory-mcilroy-back-at-pebble-beach-where-memorable-25-began\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:34:24","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:34:24","slug":"rory-mcilroy-back-at-pebble-beach-where-memorable-25-began","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/rory-mcilroy-back-at-pebble-beach-where-memorable-25-began\/","title":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy back at Pebble Beach, where memorable \u201925 began"},"content":{"rendered":"<div dir=\"ltr\" data-olk-copy-source=\"MessageBody\">Rory McIlroy back at Pebble Beach, where memorable \u201925 began<\/div>\n<div id=\"x_ms-outlook-mobile-body-separator-line\" dir=\"ltr\" data-applydefaultfontstyles=\"true\">\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"x_ms-outlook-mobile-signature\">\n<div>A visit to Pebble Beach last year helped set up Rory McIlroy for one of the biggest moments of his golf career.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>McIlroy earned a two-shot victory at the 2025 AT&amp;T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, kickstarting a stellar run that saw him win the Players Championship before completing the career Grand Slam by capturing the Green Jacket at the Masters.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>The 36-year-old Northern Ireland native is back on the Monterey Peninsula this week to defend his Pebble Beach championship.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>\u201cObviously last year was a great way to start the 2025 season,\u201d McIlroy said. \u201cHistorically I haven\u2019t played Pebble Beach that well. I\u2019ve played OK, but nothing spectacular.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>\u201cI think winning on a golf course that I hadn\u2019t won on before, hadn\u2019t really contended on before, I feel like it gave me a lot of confidence going into the rest of the season.\u201d<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>He added of his triumphant performance at Pebble Beach Golf Links that he was pleased with \u201chow in control I was with my ball flight, especially in tough conditions last year on the Saturday. There was a lot of things that I worked on in the offseason that I brought with me into here. Yeah, it was a massive confidence boost and obviously then went on to play well in that early part of the season, won at The Players and then obviously into the Masters.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>\u201cYeah, it was a perfect way to start the year here last year. Hoping for something similar this.\u201d<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>An aggressive approach and clutch work on the greens were key to prevailing at Pebble Beach, McIlroy believes.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>\u201cI hit driver a lot, giving myself short irons in,\u201d he said of his 2025 strategy. \u201cI think last year as well, it was probably the best putting performance I\u2019ve ever had on poa greens. I usually come to the West Coast and I struggle a little bit on the poa, and last year I didn\u2019t. I holed a lot of putts and that was a big difference.\u201d<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>McIlroy finished last season and started this season well, too. After the PGA Tour playoffs concluded, he captured the Irish Open, tied for third in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, and finished second at the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>After tying for 14th at the Australian Open to end 2025, he tied for third and tied for 33rd in two Middle Eastern events to kick off 2026.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>\u201cGame feels in good shape,\u201d McIlroy said. \u201cI had two weeks in Dubai to sort of shake the rust off. Played OK, wasn\u2019t anything spectacular. But I\u2019ve had two nice weeks at home and done some practice. I feel pretty good coming in here.\u201d<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":16418,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-23640","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"McIlroy finished last season and started this season well.","published_date":null,"news_description":"McIlroy finished last season and started this season well.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23640\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26542,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23640\/revisions\/26542"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=23640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}