RORY MCILROY has stunned golf fans with a surprise new look.

The five-time Major winner debuted a dramatic new hairstyle just days before teeing off at the Scottish Open.

Known for his signature curls and boyish charm, McIlroy, 36, showed up with a short-cropped, greying do that had fans doing a double take.

Gone is the curly hair that once bounced under his Nike cap, replaced by a much more mature look that some say adds two decades to his face.

One fan said on X: “Rory needs to stick to his old hair. Looks 20 years older here with his new cut.”

But another was much kinder: “Looks good to me from here.”

A third fan went in hard: “Looks like a DIY trim – there’s no tidy finish around the edges.”

McIlroy wants to be mentioned in the same breath as Cristiano Ronaldo and Novak Djokovic when it comes to sustained success at the highest level.

For McIlroy, that means building on the Masters victory that made him only the sixth golfer to complete the career Grand Slam, by winning more Majors at iconic venues.

He believes that continuing to win big at an age when most superstars have long since retired is the true mark of greatness.

Winning an Open on home soil at Portrush next week would definitely add to McIlroy’s legacy, and he’ll complete his preparations at this week’s star-studded Scottish Open.

He said: “That ability to stay on top of your game for a long period of time takes so much out of you. I think it’s one of the underappreciated things about any sport.

“You look at what Djokovic is doing at Wimbledon over the last couple of weeks, or what someone like Cristiano Ronaldo is still doing at 40 years old, or Tom Brady in American football.

“That longevity is something that maybe isn’t talked about enough. Because once you get to a certain level, it is so difficult to maintain it.

“I feel like the journey on the way up is almost – I’m not going to say it’s easy – but you have momentum, and you’re riding that wave to the top. Once you get there, it takes just as much work, if not more, to stay there.

“I think about my career, and before I won the Masters this year, the last Major I won was in 2014. I had never heard of Scottie Scheffler then.

“These talents and these players just keep coming and keep getting better with each generation. You have to adapt your game to make sure you’re able to hang with those guys.

“I feel like I’m one generation ahead of Scottie, for example, who is still in his twenties.

“So I constantly ask myself, is there something I need to add to my repertoire to stay ahead of them?.

“This is my 18th year on Tour. I’ve been winning professional events for 16 years, and retaining my drive to keep trying to get a little bit better – or trying to look for little holes in my game that I can tidy up. That’s a big part of staying competitive.

“It’s like Djokovic winning the Olympics last year. He knew that was going to be his final chance, and you saw the emotion and how much it meant to him.

“Being in those situations brings extra pressure. You think about it, and you can’t pretend it’s not there.

“For me, I would love to win an Open at Portrush, absolutely. I would love to win an Open at St Andrews. I’d love to win a U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. There are venues in the game that just mean a little bit more.”