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PGA, Golf Herren The 153rd Open – Third Round Jul 19, 2025 Portrush, IRL Rory McIlroy on the ninth hole during the third round of The 153rd Open Championship golf tournament. Portrush IRL, EDITORIAL USE ONLY PUBLICATIONxINxGERxSUIxAUTxONLY Copyright: xMikexFreyx 20250718_jhp_zg6_0799
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PGA, Golf Herren The 153rd Open – Third Round Jul 19, 2025 Portrush, IRL Rory McIlroy on the ninth hole during the third round of The 153rd Open Championship golf tournament. Portrush IRL, EDITORIAL USE ONLY PUBLICATIONxINxGERxSUIxAUTxONLY Copyright: xMikexFreyx 20250718_jhp_zg6_0799
Rory McIlroy has often been criticized for having a poor attitude. It’s no secret that the Irishman is extremely passionate about what he does. As a result, he lets his love for golf get the better of him at times. And that could get in the way of how he presents himself in front of the media. But that attitude of his doesn’t seem to have negatively influenced the impression his psychologist has of him.
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While speaking to RTE Sport, psychologist Bob Rotella remembered meeting McIlroy for the first time. “The first time I met him was in his first Masters and he wanted to talk to me, and he told me how he grew up reading my books and how much he liked them.”
“We spent some time that week talking on and off for years. I always enjoyed him and liked him. I thought he was a very thoughtful, intelligent young man,” he added.
Based on the timeline he provided, they probably met in April 2009. McIlroy still hadn’t earned his PGA Tour card yet, but was qualified to play in all four majors. He was only 20 back then, but was already one of the biggest names in Europe.
Rotella added, “I think Rory, and I’ll say this for most of the Irish guys that I’ve worked with, you’re doing something really right in Ireland because they’re all really down to earth, good people. They treat other people really good. They don’t have an ego about them. And that’s the challenge; can we be really confident and yet when we leave the golf course, be down-to-earth people?”
While McIlroy is tough as nails with respect to competition, he has never been accused of gloating about his achievements throughout his illustrious 16-year PGA Tour career. Sure, he has acknowledged his greatness, but he has also never failed to acknowledge others who have surpassed him.
When playing The Open 2025 at home, McIlroy admitted that Scottie Scheffler was the “inevitable” threat to the title. He has also often admitted to Tiger Woods‘ impact on his game.
'You're doing something really right in Ireland' – Sports psychologist Bob Rotella on helping Rory McIlroy to Masters glory.https://t.co/uL8IIOI54K
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) January 23, 2026
That said, Rory McIlroy has complete faith in Bob Rotella’s guidance, and the sports psychologist has indeed played a key role in the Irishman’s success.
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Nobody knows Rory McIlroy better than Bob Rotella
Winning the 2025 Masters Tournament was one of the biggest goals of Rory McIlroy’s career. And it was also an extremely emotional and nerve-wracking situation for him and Bob Rotella. However, the Irishman trusted his sports psychologist completely to guide him through it.
After McIlroy wore the Green Jacket, Rotella revealed that what happened on Championship Sunday was a part of their game plan. Bryson DeChambeau accused the Irishman of ignoring him during the final round. But that was never McIlroy’s intent.
Instead, Rotella had advised him to stick to himself and ignore the noise in the last round. As the sports psychologist admitted, “That didn’t have anything to do with Bryson. We didn’t want to pay attention to what anyone else was scoring or shooting or swinging or how far they were hitting it. We just wanted Rory to play his game.”
It worked in the end as McIlroy could avoid the nerves and win his first Masters Tournament.
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