Victory, when it finally came for Rory McIlroy on Sunday, appeared to be as much a family affair as a global sporting triumph.
Moments after winning his first ever Masters title, the 35-year-old golfer rushed over to the woman who has been at his side, through the rough and the smooth.
The embrace he shared with his long-suffering wife Erica Stoll and their daughter Poppy, four, was a moving spectacle indeed – as was the way he praised his family, or ‘my team’ as he called them, for supporting him through his agonising journey to becoming only the sixth man, and the first European, to win the career Grand Slam of Masters, Open Championship, US Open and US PGA Championship titles.
Erica even served as his caddie for the Par 3 contest that precedes the Masters Tournament, joined by Poppy, who delighted fans when she took a playful putt on the ninth hole at the Augusta National Golf Club, Georgia.
No mention was made of the very personal price McIlroy came close to paying for his unrelenting pursuit of golfing glory – for less than a year ago he suddenly announced he was divorcing his wife of eight years, declaring the marriage was ‘irretrievably broken’.
So, while the past year has undoubtedly witnessed an extraordinary reversal in the Irishman’s sporting fortunes – he won his last golf ‘major’ in 2014 and, having blown a big lead on the final day of the Masters in 2011, had for years faced growing questions over whether he had the temperament to end the drought – the turnaround in his turbulent love life has been no less staggering.
McIlroy wearing the prestigious Masters green jacket with his daughter Poppy and wife Erica
McIlroy celebrates with wife Erica Stoll after winning The Masters and completing a career grand slam
In May 2024 McIlroy served a petition for divorce on Erica, 37, at their £10million mansion in Jupiter, Florida, asking for shared custody of Poppy and for a judge to enforce the prenup agreement the couple signed before their lavish 2017 wedding at Ashford Castle in County Mayo, Ireland.
McIlroy’s bombshell announcement, amid rumours of an affair which have never been proven, left the golfing world reeling – as did his equally sudden change of heart, only a month later. Just two days before the start of the US Open, the couple announced they had ‘resolved their differences’ and wouldn’t be parting after all.
Standing on the sidelines on Sunday, immaculately dressed in white, her £500,000 diamond engagement ring firmly back on her wedding finger, Erica smiled for the cameras and congratulated her husband with a kiss.
But the spectre of their near-divorce can never be far away. On Sunday, just hours after McIlroy’s stunning win, it only took an Instagram post by CBS reporter Amanda Balionis praising the star and his ‘legacy’ achievement to start up the unfounded rumours again.
Balionis had also interviewed McIlroy after his Masters win. Neither have addressed the rumours. Another face in the crowd to remind him of his turbulent romantic past was McIlroy’s former fiancée, Danish tennis star Caroline Wozniacki. She was in Augusta with her husband, retired National Basketball Association player David Lee, with whom she is expecting a third child.
McIlroy famously called time on their relationship in 2014, just days after the wedding invitations had been sent out. After breaking off their engagement, he went on to win his first Open Championship and his second PGA Championship title, earning himself a reputation for being as ruthless in romance as he was on the course.
More, in a moment, of the golfer’s colourful love life and the women whose hearts he has broken on his way to the top. What’s painfully clear is that in recent times, the drama surrounding the bar manager’s son from Holywood in Northern Ireland has been plentiful – on and off the green.
‘The divorce announcement was a shock for everyone,’ says a golfing source. ‘They [McIlroy and Stoll] always seemed so besotted with each other. No one saw it coming.
‘He’s had so much pressure on him over the past few years. There was a feeling that perhaps he was trying to shut out any distractions that might be affecting his game and that was why he initially wanted to split with Erica.
‘But he’s done a lot of soul-searching and seems to have embraced Erica and Poppy more closely over the past year as part of his mental preparation for the Masters. They’ve been very present in Augusta. He’s come across as very much the family man.
‘In the past he’s been so tense, there have been several big meltdowns. Having them by his side seems to have helped him develop a more relaxed mental attitude and the more relaxed Rory is, the better he plays.’
In June last year, a source close to the sportsman told the Mail that the real reason driving the reconciliation was that McIlroy ‘can’t be on his own for more than five minutes,’ adding that, quite simply, he ‘needs the stability’.
Another said he believes the millionaire golfer was told by someone on his support team – made up of coaches, caddies and his agent – that he had been too hasty in seeking a divorce and should give his marriage ‘another six months’. One of McIlroy’s friends also told the Mail he ‘definitely can’t be on his own… Rory is a nice guy. He’s a good friend and a great golfer, but he’s not a great partner.’
The friend said that Erica ‘does provide the stability that he desperately wants and needs. He won’t cope without anyone at all, but perhaps he thought at the time [of filing for divorce] that she wasn’t the right person.’
There was also speculation that McIlroy, said to be worth £225million, was reluctant to see his fortune diminished by a divorce.
McIlroy and Danish tennis professional Caroline Wozniacki, whom he dated from 2011 to 2014
McIlroy with Amanda Balionis. Unconfirmed rumours have swirled about an affair between the two
McIlroy once declared there’s no ‘right way’ to end a relationship. He has certainly had his fair share of experience when it comes to abruptly ending them.
He has been linked to several high-profile women including Meghan Markle, to whom he apparently became close in 2014 before she met Prince Harry, but there was a time in his early twenties when he planned to settle down with his childhood sweetheart Holly Sweeney.
Holly even moved into his £3million home in County Down. In early 2011, he ended their relationship, believing that being single would help him focus on his game.
That year, in a BBC Northern Ireland documentary called Rory’s Major Breakthrough, he explained: ‘I realised pretty quickly that I’d made a mistake and I had to do a lot of begging and grovelling to get her back.’
He credited Holly with giving him stability: ‘She is fantastic. She definitely keeps my feet on the ground and she knows me better basically than anyone else does in this world, apart from my parents. She knows the things to say to me.’
In July 2011 he left Holly devastated when ‘out of the blue’ he ended their relationship for good.
By then his name was already linked to Caroline Wozniacki.
He proposed to her with a £98,000 eight-carat diamond ring while watching the New Year fireworks from a boat in Sydney Harbour in 2013. They were due to marry in the autumn of 2014 but in May that year Wozniacki, then the best female tennis player in the world, was left heartbroken after McIlroy dumped her during a three-minute phone call.
Speaking then he admitted ‘the problem is mine’ and said ‘the invitations issued at the weekend made me realise that I wasn’t ready for all that marriage entails’. He later admitted Wozniacki’s own high-flying career was problematic for him.
‘I thought at the time that being with someone that was in a similar position to you was the answer,’ he said in 2017. ‘But it isn’t, because you can never get away from it. You can never detach yourself and try to come back to the real world.’
By the time he called off his wedding to Wozniacki, he had already known Erica for two years.
He met her in 2012, when she was a Professional Golfers’ Association employee. They began dating in late 2014 and he proposed in 2015 in Paris.
A source told the Mail at the time: ‘When you know, you know. She has been a real tonic for Rory. They have just grown really close in a short space of time.’
McIlroy himself paid tribute to Erica’s ‘calming presence’ telling the Mail: ‘She is a low-key person but she brings a level of normality to everything. She never wants to be the centre of attention and is always comfortable in the background. It is great having someone like that and someone who knows what it is all about, having been around the game.’
Guests at their opulent wedding in 2017 included Coldplay’s Chris Martin and One Direction’s Niall Horan. Music was provided by Stevie Wonder and Ed Sheeran.
Last year, following his divorce U-turn, McIlroy appeared to dismiss rumours of an affair, saying ‘responding to each rumour is a fool’s game’. He stated: ‘Over the past weeks, Erica and I have realised that our best future was as a family together. Thankfully we have resolved our differences and look forward to a new beginning.’
McIlroy has admitted to being ‘a selfish person’ for ‘a long time’. But the birth of Poppy in 2020, he said, changed his outlook on life.
‘I grew up as an only child and an only child playing golf so I feel like the whole world revolved around me for a long time, and now it doesn’t. It revolves around this little person… and it’s a nice change.’ At the weekend, he revealed he prepared for round three of the Masters by watching the 2016 Disney film Zootopia with his daughter. His wife also ‘convinced’ him to watch Netflix series Bridgerton with her, despite him being ‘very against it’.
In interviews he gave on Sunday, McIlroy admitted the past 11 years have been ‘full of pent-up emotion’. During that time his attitude to romance has also been inextricably linked with his performance on the fairway.
But, if this weekend’s triumphant turn has taught him anything, it is that marriage and family life need not be a hindrance to sporting success. Ironically, in his case, Erica and Poppy may ultimately have been the key to it.
‘They’ve been on this journey with me the whole way through,’ he admitted on Sunday. ‘They know the burden that I’ve carried to come here every year and try and try again.’
