Rory McIlroy and coach Michael Bannon honoured by Irish Golf Writers’ Association

Members of the IGWA voted the Masters champion the 2025 Men’s Professional of the Year.

CAREER HIGH: Rory McIlroy, sporting his green Masters jacket, speaks to supporters. Pic: Brian Lawless/PA Wire.

Masters champion Rory McIlroy and his lifelong coach Michael Bannon have been recognised for their outstanding achievements in the annual Irish Golf Writers’ Association (IGWA) awards.

Members of the IGWA voted McIlroy the 2025 Men’s Professional of the Year after an outstanding season in which he won the Masters Tournament to become the first European and just the sixth man in history to complete the modern career Grand Slam.

The 2025 awards, which are sponsored by Anantara The Marker Dublin, will be presented during a luncheon at the hotel in Dublin’s docklands on Tuesday, December 16.

The 36-year-old Co. Down man won another three tournaments — the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, The Players Championship and the Amgen Irish Open — captured the European Tour’s Race to Dubai for the seventh time and played a major role in Europe’s Ryder Cup victory in New York in September.

Co Kildare’s Lauren Walsh won the Women’s Professional of the Year award for the second season running, edging out Elm Park rookie Anna Foster in the ballot.

The 25-year-old from Castlewarden Golf Club finished a career-high of tenth in the Ladies European Tour’s Order of Merit in just her second season as a professional and went on to win her LPGA Tour card at the recent Q-Series event in Alabama.

County Louth GC’s Stuart Grehan is the 2025 Men’s Amateur of the Year in recognition of a season in which he won the Flogas Irish Men’s Amateur Open Championship and the AIG Irish Men’s Close Championship.

He also helped Great Britain and Ireland win the St Andrews Trophy at Real Club de la Puerta de Hierro in Madrid and was selected to represent Great Britain & Ireland in September’s Walker Cup matches at Cypress Point.

The 32-year-old Tullamore native won the Irish Amateur Open after a play-off at Seapoint and became just the third player in the modern era, following Padraig Harrington (1995) and Peter O’Keeffe (2021), to do the Open-Close double, winning the Irish Amateur Close title by two strokes at Westport.

Tramore GC’s Anna Dawson was voted Women’s Amateur of the Year, edging out other outstanding performers, including Beth Coulter, Aine Donegan and Emma Fleming.

Having returned from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock to compete at home with Maynooth University, the Paddy Harrington Scholarship student won the AIG Irish Women’s Amateur Close Championship at Ardee GC in August and went on to earn her full international call-up at the Home Internationals at Woodhall Spa.

Michael Bannon will be recognised by the IGWA for Distinguished Services to Golf for his impeccable trajectory as a PGA professional.

A member of the PGA since 1981, Michael won 20 PGA region events before dedicating himself to teaching. Having started as an assistant at Ardglass, he moved first to Holywood Golf Club as head professional and has coached Rory McIlroy since he was eight years old.

Bannon moved to Bangor GC in 1999 and McIlroy followed him there, going on to become world number one for the first time in 2012. He has since helped McIlroy win 45 times as a professional, including five Major championship titles — the US Open (2011), the US PGA (2012 & 2014), The Open Championship (2014) and the Masters Tournament (2025).

Following the cancellation of the 2024 awards due to Storm Éowyn, last season’s winners - Sara Byrne (2024 Women’s Amateur), Max Kennedy (2024 Men’s Amateur), Tom McKibbin (2024 Men’s Professional) and Eamonn Darcy (2024 Distinguished Services to Golf) - will also be honoured at this year’s awards lunch.