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. But he lets his love for golf get the better of him at times. And that gets in the way of how he presents himself in front of the media. Despite that, his psychologist has a lot of faith in him and others from Ireland.

Remembering his first meeting with McIlroy, Bob Rotella told RTE. He said, “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.”

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 there is no doubt that McIlroy is competitive. But he has never been accused of gloating about his achievements. That has been the case through the 16 years of his PGA Tour career. He has confessed when he has felt he was at the top, but he has also never failed to acknowledge others who have surpassed him.

Even 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.

However, there are times when he does get too involved emotionally or otherwise. And that creates a negative perception of him. The non-conforming controversy and his ignorance of the media during the 2025 PGA Championship are prime examples of the same.

That said, there’s no one better than Rotella who knows how McIlroy’s mind works on the fairway.

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Rory McIlroy has complete faith in Bob Rotella’s guidance

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. That was more valuable than any controversy surrounding a rival.