Rory McIlroy once explained why watching himself win the 2011 US Open on TV was such a ‘hard lesson’

Rory McIlroy has won six majors now, and he is one of only six men to have completed the career Grand Slam.

McIlroy’s career really kicked off when he won the US Open at Congressional way back in 2011, just two months after his back-nine meltdown at The Masters.

The 37-year-old Northern Irishman then went on to win the PGA Championship at Kiawah Island in 2012 and The Open Championship at Royal Hoylake and another PGA Championship, this time at Valhalla, in 2014.

Rory McIlroy famously completed the career Grand Slam by winning The Masters in 2025 and he successfully defended his title a year later at Augusta National.

McIlroy has admitted before that he is not motivated by setting records, but instead by performing to the very best of his ability each and every week.

The six-time major champion certainly did that at Congressional 15 years ago.

The lesson Rory McIlroy learned after watching his 2011 US Open win on TV

McIlroy made an appearance on The WHOOP Podcast back in 2025 and discussed his approach to the mental side of the game.

The 37-year-old Northern Irishman was asked directly whether he ever watches his wins back on television.

And he opened up on how doing exactly that earlier on in his career ended up being a really hard lesson.

“It was a hard lesson I learned,“ McIlroy said.

“So, I won the US Open in 2011. It was my first major and I was so excited, and the next week, I was off, I watched all of it back.

“But because of that, what’s this, 14 years on from that? All I can remember from that week on the golf course is the visual of watching it on the TV and not actually of what I experienced through my own eyes.

“Yeah, it changed my memory.

“So I learned a hard lesson from that, where it’s like, I really shouldn’t watch myself play on TV or watch highlights, because it just blurs my memory of what I actually felt and saw that day, through my own eyes.“

It’s totally understandable that McIlroy wants to remember his major wins through what happened in the moment with his own eyes.

However, can you imagine how difficult it would be to win a major championship and then not watch yourself in action on television afterwards?

What McIlroy said about watching his 2025 Masters win back on TV

After he won The Masters in 2025, McIlroy reiterated his reasoning for not watching his wins on television.

“I’ve tried not to watch it a lot because I want to remember the feelings,” McIlroy said.

“I’ve talked about this before, but I think when I rewatch a lot of things back, I then just remember of the visuals of the TV rather than what I was feeling and what I was seeing through my own eyes, so I haven’t tried to watch it back too much.”

That must take some serious restraint, but McIlroy clearly believes that’s the best way for him to go about his business.