Rory McIlroy must have choked on his scrambled eggs when he discovered how his tax affairs had torpedoed a knighthood. Recently relocated to Surrey, McIlroy could have chosen Monaco or Switzerland as an economically cosy place to land when he left the equally tax-friendly Florida shore earlier this year.
After all, living in a European tax haven did not dent the honours committee’s appreciation of Sir Jim Ratcliffe, Sir Jackie Stewart and Sir Lewis Hamilton, of Swiss cantons and Monte Carlo respectively. Nor did similar postcodes prevent actors and performers Sean Connery, Roger Moore, Michael Caine and Tom Jones from receiving a chivalric leg up the social ladder.
A report in the Daily Telegraph linked McIlroy’s snub to an historic investment scheme deemed tax avoidance, despite there being no acknowledgement that McIlroy or his advisors would have known about any exploitation loopholes when in 2015 he was involved in a venture to regenerate city centres in Liverpool, Birmingham and Sheffield.
McIlroy might also be scratching his head over the knighthoods in 2000 of former Telegraph owners, Sir David and Frederick Barclay. Their dedication to philanthropy apparently outweighed their love of tax-saving havens Monaco and Brecqhou, the private island they owned in the Channel Islands.
Bending the knee before a monarch arguably lost its meaning when heads began to roll in the Place de la Concorde, formerly Place Louis XV, in the heart of 18th century Paris. But if we are to have regally blessed honours for the super-rich it is hard to think of a more deserving multi-millionaire than the golfer from Northern Ireland.
McIlroy was named BBC Sports Personality of the Year for 2025 (Photo: PA)A knighthood is bestowed for pre-eminence in a chosen field, for making a significant contribution. Since none from these shores had won all four majors before McIlroy did just that in April with victory at the Masters, we can assume pre-eminence and significance are boxes ticked.
And if we are really to get into it you could argue McIlroy’s influence in golf is unprecedented in these isles given his achievements, his standing in the game, the responsibility he accepts on behalf of it and the time he gives to promoting it.
Sir Nick Faldo, only the second golfing male to receive a knighthood after Sir Henry Cotton, and alongside Dame Laura Davies just the third to receive the highest honour, owns six majors to McIlroy’s five yet had little of McIlroy’s charisma, charm and giving nature.
Maybe the honours committee are waiting for McIlroy to thank from “the heart of my bottom” those who chronicle his endeavours as Sir Nick did in that acerbic way of his. Where Faldo prickled in the media space, McIlroy has embraced camera and microphone enthusiastically, and in a considered, thoughtful way. Only in extremis have the toys left the pram, most surprisingly perhaps, in the weeks after his career-defining victory at Augusta.
McIlroy’s maiden major at the 2011 US Open was recognised with an MBE. This was a reflection of the impact he had made, the public enthralled with the romance of a victory that followed two months on from the crushing defeat he suffered at the Masters.
The day after the tumult I found myself at a public course in Augusta affectionately known as the “Cabbage Patch”. I happened to be in the clubhouse as the bar was being restocked with soft drinks. The talk was all about the dramatic denouement of the day before when a tousle haired 21-year-old unravelled on the back nine, dissolving in tears as his ball disappeared in Rae’s Creek on the 13th hole.
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McIlroy, who led by four overnight, was undone by a poor tee shot at the 10th that saw his ball ricochet off a tree and come to rest behind a cabin. Thus began the disintegration of a young man whose generational talent offered nil protection against the pitiless forces of elite sport.
None in the patch could tell you who took the green jacket (Charles Schwartzel). It was McIlroy who left the greatest impression, setting in train an epic dimension that would characterise his career.
Fast forward 14 years and redemption is his, the Masters completing a set comprising the US Open, the Open Championship and PGA Championship, only the sixth golfer to achieve the feat. Chuck in his Ryder Cup heroics at Bethpage Black in September, where he defied the staged proclamations of the American president and three days of Trump-fed American rage to anchor an astonishing victory, and you have an outcome as worthy as any of a tap on the shoulder with a sword.
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