Rory McIlroy deserves to win BBC Sports Personality of Year - but golf star needs help

I am referring to Rory McIlroy, who has been nominated for the prize along with newly-crowned F1 champion Lando Norris, darts star Luke Littler, England footballers Hannah Hampton and Chloe Kelly and England rugby union player Ellie Kildunne.

It’s a strong list and the public vote has produced a woman as the winner for the last four years, Emma Raducanu picking up the prize in 2021 and then being followed by Beth Mead (2022), Mary Earps (2023) and Keely Hodgkinson (2024).

Having helped England win the UEFA European Women's Championship for the second time in a row, you can rest assured that both Hampton and Kelly - who netted the winning penalty in a shoot-out with Spain - will have lots of people voting for them.

Nick Faldo was last golfer to win prize in 1989

As will Kildunne after she helped England win this year’s Women’s Rugby World Cup on home soil, while Norris and Littler will also be supported by their respective fan bases after both becoming world champions at a young age.

It’s been 36 years since a golfer was last crowned as the BBC Personality of the Year and that was Nick Faldo after he’d landed the first of his three Masters victories that year. The only other golfer to claim the prize was Welshman Dai Rees in the fourth edition in 1957.

There have been times in the past when McIlroy should probably have been honoured, having been pipped in 2014, when he won The Open at Royal Liverpool, by F1 world champion Lewis Hamilton, but, unfortunately for him, golf’s dwindling popularity with BBC bosses worked against him.

Despite the efforts of Iain Carter in particular in his role as the golf correspondent, it’s still living in the shadows these days of lots of other sports, hence why McIlroy needs the help of people throughout the golf world.

In truth, his main achievement alone should really be enough for him to be this year’s recipient. He became the first European, after all, to complete a career grand slam, joining Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods in the game’s most exclusive club.

It’s when you add in the raw emotion that came flooding out as he finally won The Masters after being on course to do so in 2011 before imploding on the back nine that made his victory at Augusta National one of the best sporting moments of the decade never mind this year.

The Northern Irishman also triumphed at Pebble Beach - one of the game’s cathedral venues - and, helped by a spectacular Amgen Irish Open success at The K Club, he landed the DP World Tour’s Race to Dubai title for a seventh time. Oh, and let’s not forget about him helping Europe retain the Ryder Cup in a horrible atmosphere in New York.

If it’s not Rory McIlroy’s name on the SPOTY trophy this year on 18 December, then it’s unlikely a golfer will ever win it again! It’s all down to votes, though, and, make no mistake, golf lovers need to do their bit.