Rory McIlroy makes stunning retirement admission ahead of BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth

GRAND SLAM champion Rory McIlroy has confessed he’s 'definitely' approaching the end of his glittering career.

Down ace McIlroy was speaking ahead of this week's DP World Tour flagship event at Wentworth.

The 36-year-old won the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Players Championship, Masters and Irish Open in 2025.

And now ahead of the 2025 Ryder Cup, he's chasing one last win at the BMW PGA Championship for his season before jetted off to Bethpage Black.

Speaking at the pre-event presser near his new residence at Wentworth, McIlroy admitted he doesn’t see himself grinding on into his 50s.

The five-time major champion was asked if he feels on the back nine of his storied career.

His reply was defiant: “Yeah, absolutely, back six!”

McIlroy, who controversially skipped a number of events this season, including The Memorial and opening FedEx Cup Playoff tournament at the St Jude Championship said he'll play whatever events he wants.

He explained: “I don’t want to be grounding out here at 50 years of age.

"I’ll turn up and play the majors and have a nice time but you know, whenever I’m done, I’m done, whenever that is.

"That’s certainly not right now, but I’m closer to that point now than I was in 2007 when I turned pro.”

The Masters champion also revealed he was inspired by tennis legend Roger Federer, who late in his career chose to compete in events he’d never played before.

Holywood hotshot McIlroy is set to play in a number of tournaments for the first time later this year, including the inaugural DP World Tour India Championship.

He added: “I had a chat with Roger Federer...he was saying he wanted to go and play a lot of the places he could never play in his career.

“I want to play in the locations that I love to go to, and I want to play the majors and the Ryder Cup. That’s it.

"I’m not going to be going by minimums or anything else … I’m going to play where I want to play.”

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