Nine months after winning the 2023 Genesis Scottish Open, Rory McIlroy finally won on the PGA Tour! The Zurich Classic win marked his first for the 2024 season, and it sure was a special one.

The now-25-time PGA Tour winner has surpassed Dustin Johnson and Gary Player’s 24-win mark on the Tour. It makes him the fourth player to have 25 titles to his name.

But it seems not everyone thinks of this win as a highly prestigious one.

The golf world’s esteemed analyst and former golfer, Brandel Chamblee, has been an avid supporter of McIlroy.

After his PAC resignation, the renowned Golf Channel broadcaster came forward to say that McIlroy wasn’t supported by the PGA Tour pros when he was out there voicing his opinion,

and hence he decided to bow out. Chamblee seemed to understand McIlroy’s side as he said, “It was like he was taking most of the heat if not all of the heat,

but I think after a while, it was listen, I’ve done everything I can do and I’m not getting any support, so I’m going to bow out. Why is it up to me to fight this whole battle myself?” After the support, one would assume that Chamblee would be happy for McIlroy’s 25th win, but that was not the case.

Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry played amazingly on Sunday to pick up the winner’s bet at TPC Louisiana. Later, the two even celebrated the victory with a beer in hand and sang for the crowd. But Branden Chamblee did not celebrate with the two, as he diminished the win’s value.

Talking about how a team win shouldn’t be considered a single-player win as the Ryder Cup isn’t, Chamblee suggested on his X account to the PGA Tour, “Team wins should have their own category amongst “tour wins”.” He further explained that even the fans talk about individual wins when they are talking about the number of times a golfer has won on the Tour. Hence, a new category would help.

Exemplarily, Chamblee compared Tiger Woods and Sam Sneads victories, which officially is the same number, 82, but subtracting the team wins wouldn’t be. Explaining why only Woods has the most wins on the tour, he wrote, “Sam Snead has five team wins counted amongst his 82 wins, while Tiger has zero team wins in his 82 wins… So I ask you, who has won the most tour events of all time??? It is Tiger.”

So, regardless of McIlroy’s 25-under victory alongside Shane Lowry, Chamblee might not still be convinced that it’s the 25th one. However, for McIlroy, the victory was not huge because of the silverware, the $1.28 million prize money, or because it was the 25th one. Rather it was about something else altogether! It proved to him that his game was in the right direction.

Rory McIlroy reflects on why he started playing golf

While entering TPC Louisiana, Rory McIlroy was coming off only one top-10 finish in the 2024 season. That came at the Valero Texas Open, where he was solo third. He played nine events but could not taste the victory in any of them. His tenth one was with his childhood friend, Shane Lowry, and it turned out to be better.

McIlroy added that winning on the PGA Tour is always cool, but doing it alongside Lowry made it more special as he reminisced over his past and where he came from. Regardless of how intense the game was, the duo had fun. The fun revived McIlroy, which is why he started playing.

Talking about the PGA Tour, he explained that he reflected on his amateur days and remembered that golf was fun, and that’s why he started it. Now that he had that magic factor on his side, McIlroy said, “I think sort of reinjecting a little bit of that fun back into it in a week like this week can always help.” He’ll next be seen at Quail Hollow Club in May. Will the fun continue for the 25-time PGA Tour winner?

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Source: Los Angeles Times