After Rory McIlroy’s ball made its final descent after a roll of a few short inches on Sunday evening, a few numbers began to fall with it.
Immediately, we knew he had won the Masters by one. Next came the meaning in a broader sense: the first guy since Tiger Woods to win back-to-back at Augusta National of all courses and only the fourth in history. The company he keeps there is special – Woods, Sir Nick Faldo and Jack Nicklaus.
And then there were more digits to drop. For McIlroy it was his sixth major title and that is worth a tie for 12th on golf’s all-time standing, not nearly a Nicklaus or Woods, but equal to Phil Mickelson and ahead of Seve Ballesteros.
Numbers can have value like that. They make things easy to rank. But how do you put a figure on colour? On the crazies? On the people who don’t just travel from A to B but plough headfirst into C, B and D on the way? That bracket involves McIlroy and our viewing experience is richer for it.
So the conversation can be nuanced and especially when we try to compare from one sport to the next. For the purpose of scaling one Briton against another, I’ll keep it to athletes in my lifetime and for the sake of neat edges will limit it to this century – I never watched Duncan Edwards play, nor Bobby Moore, Gareth Edwards, WG Grace et cetera – and a further weighting will be added to individual sports.
That latter aspect is not entirely fair, granted, because how do you separate Sir Lewis Hamilton from the people who gave him his cars? Flawed. Maybe the same will be thought of how I overlooked the likes of Sir Bradley Wiggins, Chris Froome, Tyson Fury and Sir Mo Farah, who yielded great numbers but also raised prolonged, awkward questions about how they did it.
It’s subjective. And possibly wrong, which is part of the fun, as with McIlroy. Let us know your thoughts…
Joe Calzaghe starts our top 15 – the Welshman spent more than a decade as world champion, defending his title over 20 times
The Lionesses celebrate winning the Euros on home soil back in 2022 – but which member of the team makes our list?
15. Joe Calzaghe
Sport: Boxing, Career highlight: Unifying the super-middleweight belts by beating the undefeated Mikkel Kessler at Millennium Stadium in 2007
Unbeaten and unmatched in the two weight divisions in which he won his world titles. He was a dancer with rapid movement and courage to burn, shown when he won the first of his defining fights with Jeff Lacy despite the onset of hand injuries that made an agony of clenching a fist. A sizeable hazard for a fighter and not an obstacle for him.
I would have loved to see him endure the ultimate clash of styles against Carl Froch – for my hypothetical bet, a wide points win.
14. Ronnie O’Sullivan
Sport: Snooker, Career highlight: Becoming the second man in history, after Stephen Hendry, to win seven world championships, in 2022
I once showed him a video of his first televised appearance as a 14-year-old and he almost broke down in tears, wishing he could be that kid again. It was moving because it wasn’t a regret for passing time so much as wanting to preserve the instincts that ran through the younger version of himself.
O’Sullivan is a rare kind of sporting genius and one who could infuriate an empty room and thrill a full one. Repeatedly. But with seven world titles it is doubtless true that he delivered on all expectations, beyond his own. He reckoned to me that if he had stayed more true to the kid in the film, he would have won 12.
Ronnie O’Sullivan is a rare kind of sporting genius – one who could infuriate an empty room and thrill a full one
13. Lucy Bronze
Sport: Football, Career highlight: Winning a home Euros at Wembley in 2022
Longevity, titles by the barrow-load, and part of the Lionesses side that won the Euros twice, once with a fractured tibia.
There are a great many trailblazers in the lineage from Kelly Smith through Leah Williamson, Jill Scott, Fran Kirby et al, but none who fully straddle the amateur and professional eras with such relentless success – five Champions League winner’s medals for a start. Bronze was and is a gold-plated giant who lifted teams and an entire sport.
12. Lennox Lewis
Sport: Boxing, Career highlight: Becoming undisputed heavyweight champion of the world by beating Evander Holyfield in 1999
Much of his best work was done before the era of this list, and I always thought his self-styled moniker of Pugilist Specialist was clunky. But when he wasn’t distracted by film sets prior to the big fights (cameo duties in Ocean’s Eleven before getting sparked out by Hasim Rahman), he was a colossus.
My only regret is that the Mike Tyson fight came when Tyson was washed up because I believe Lewis would have kept him at the end of his jab at any stage in their respective careers.
I will add here that Tyson Fury does not make the list – his skills of movement and anticipation and ring craft are immense, but so too the stench of doping infractions alongside anything that has emerged from his mouth. Anthony Joshua’s rise was phenomenal but the volume of defeats keep him from Lewis’s company.
It’s regrettable that Lennox Lewis faced Mike Tyson way past the latter’s prime, in 2002, but knocking out the Baddest Man on the Planet isn’t an achievement to be sniffed at
11. Laura Kenny and Jason Kenny
Sport: Cycling, Career highlight: Winning five gold medals between them at the 2016 Olympics
I’m including them as a package because they’re married and as a couple their haul of Olympic gold medals simply defies comparison to any worldwide rival – 12.
They once spoke, or possibly joked, of wishing to create a bespoke clock where the hour markers were made entirely of those gold medals. A timeless achievement that they pulled off.
Laura and Jason Kenny, Britain’s golden couple, pose with their medals at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro
10. Wayne Rooney
Sport: Football, Career highlight: Winning both the Champions League and Premier League with Manchester United in 2007-8
An entry into this list as much for his vibe and aura as his sterling contributions across a sublime career. Rooney was energy and menace. Rooney was great at centre forward and centre midfield. Rooney was heart. Rooney was fun.
I attended Euro 2004 as a fan and saw him against Croatia – the sheer arrogance of how he threw himself into that tie, a man-child barging big men to the ground, is a rare quality. He knew he belonged from the off. He backed down from nothing.
Wayne Rooney was a teenage revelation at the 2004 Euros – he knew he belonged on the elite stage from the off and never backed down
9. Ben Stokes
Sport: Cricket, Career highlight: Inspiring England to glory on home soil at the 2019 World Cup
Force of will. Not a leader to everyone’s liking, and I have struggled at times to handle the bloody-mindedness of Bazball, in which he is complicit, but there is tremendous sporting value in rising when circumstances would crush most.
His innings of 155 at Lord’s against Australia three years ago is just one example from thin air, when even a net of nine men on the boundary couldn’t keep him from finding the seats. A genius and a tornado wrapped into one.
Ben Stokes celebrates after his unbeaten 135 led England to a remarkable victory at Headingley in the 2019 Ashes
8. AP McCoy
Sport: Racing, Career highlight: Becoming the first jockey to reach 4,000 winners over jumps, in 2013
As with so many on this list, it is not just about the weight of extraordinary numbers but making the extraordinary possible through obsession and the fracture of almost every bone in the human skeleton.
He rode his first winner at 17, his last at 40, and 4,356 passed between those two points.
AP McCoy was a relentless winner across a truly remarkable career that lasted 23 years
7. Jonny Wilkinson
Sport: Rugby, Career highlight: Kicking England to victory at the 2003 World Cup
The embodiment of perseverance, of perfection through repetition, and the orchestrator of that rarest of things: an England win in a World Cup final.
As a competitor and person, he achieved success through tormenting himself into believing he could, should, must be better. His neuroses and drive probably left those in his teams more satisfied with the fruit of his efforts than he was.
Jonny Wilkinson’s famous drop goal that downed Australia in the final of the 2003 World Cup
6. Jess Ennis-Hill
Sport: Heptathlon, Career highlight: Winning gold at London 2012
What she did at London 2012, under those pressures of a home Games, carries a premium beyond even the usual challenge of winning Olympic gold. Winning a second world title 13 months after giving birth was also uniquely exceptional.
If there was a fractionally longer list I’d also include Katarina Johnson-Thompson, for victories over herself as much as those over other heptathletes.
Jess Ennis-Hill had to deal with the pressure of being the face of the 2012 Olympics… but it didn’t stop her winning gold
5. Harry Kane
Sport: Football, Career highlight: Becoming England’s record goalscorer in 2023
Sheer decency as a person and leader and a remorseless wrecking ball as a striker. Records broken in England and Germany will have to compensate for what remains a criminally under-stocked trophy cabinet, but he’s the greatest English centre forward to have crossed my eyeline.
Had Manchester City favoured him prior to the younger option of Erling Haaland, I entirely believe he would have matched the great Norwegian’s numbers while offering a broader array of additional qualities.
Aside from finishing, he’s arguably England’s best passer of a ball, too, and a successful World Cup might well change his standing here.
Harry Kane looks overjoyed after surpassing Rooney to become England’s record goalscorer in 2023 – he’s now 25 clear at the top
4. Jimmy Anderson
Sport: Cricket, Career highlight: Becoming the first seamer in Test cricket history to reach 700 wickets
When I interviewed him a couple of years ago, I became fixated on a callus on the magic middle finger of his right hand – the skin was dead after 40,037 Test deliveries and 704 wickets. But there was also a fresh cut on the same finger brought on by accident building a postbox.
Anderson was a titan wrapped in the demeanour of the most normal man on the street. The longevity of his genius makes him a special case.
Jimmy Anderson celebrates the wicket of Kraigg Brathwaite – his 702nd in Test cricket – during his farewell match against the West Indies in 2024
3. Lewis Hamilton
Sport: Formula One, Career highlight: Matching Michael Schumacher’s record for world championships by winning his seventh title in 2020
Seven world titles and records on everything from wins to podiums, spanning three separate decades. Remarkable in any sphere let alone such a dangerous workplace.
As a young racer, he was a thrill. As an older guy with Ferrari, there are those better placed than me to say he is watering down his legacy.
But whatever we caveat about the balance between racer and car, he has redrawn the boundaries for his sport and done so from an upbringing wildly out of keeping with the advantages known by many of his peers. A remarkable figure in sport and wider culture.
Lewis Hamilton’s achievements – not least his seven world titles – are staggering, particularly when you consider how dangerous his workplace is!
2. Rory McIlroy
Sport: Golf, Career highlight: Completing the career Grand Slam by winning the Masters in 2025
I was once told the key to good golf is a quiet mind. Quite how the circus that rages between the ears of McIlroy has enabled such an astonishing career is anyone’s guess, but observing the tribulations has been remarkable.
As a child prodigy and a rapidly ascending professional, it was easy to be drawn to his talent alone. It was boundless and those success stories are always compelling. But they are invariably enriched when the turbulence kicks in and McIlroy’s 11-year wait between his fourth and fifth majors took him to a state of psychological chaos that was unlike any other in recent memory.
Plus, he never resisted sharing the details. Like a ridiculous shot between tree branches, he couldn’t say no to an invitation to discuss it. As such we had a window into his mind and it has only increased the collective neuroses when he has entered the four-day meat grinder of a major.
His Masters breakthrough last year was the best sport I have watched live; his follow-up on Sunday was not far behind for the sheer potential of what he appears to have unlocked in himself. Aged 36, I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets to eight or nine majors by the time he is done.
Rory McIlroy embraces his caddie Harry Diamond after his second Masters triumph, on Sunday. The Northern Irishman now has six major wins
1. Andy Murray
Sport: Tennis, Career highlight: Ending Britain’s 77-year wait for a men’s singles champion at Wimbledon in 2013
There is a normalcy bias to be applied here. He isn’t flash like Hamilton or someone who might grate for lofty, contradictory proclamations like McIlroy. No, Murray has a different feel about him.
One of my more personal interactions came a couple of years ago, when he turned up for a golf tournament in the name of our dear, late tennis correspondent Mike Dickson.
Having just won the event, Murray was in a minor flap outside the clubhouse because he forgot to charge his electric car and suddenly had a minor school-run dilemma. A small thing but there is zero pretence about him, and a moral code that is also rare at the top of elite sport.
Our No1 is Andy Murray – a man whose extraordinary humility belied his supreme ability, and one who ended a 77-year drought at Wimbledon (pictured)
Of greater weighting to his inclusion on the top of this list is that he did what many felt to be impossible by winning Wimbledon, where the pounds of pressure per square inch on a home player’s shoulders once bordered on the absurd.
Tim Henman’s runs to the semi-finals in the Sampras era were nonsensically derided as failure. The shadow of Fred Perry was so vast in SW19, so fortified by time, that Murray’s ability to win it twice in the time of Federer, Nadal and Djokovic immediately outweighs the guff about where he stood against them across his career.
That he got to world No 1 at the direct cost to his long-term physical health would also rank him next to Wilkinson when we talk about those with the deepest obsessions.
