ALISON BOSHOFF: The blonde American whose flirty interview with Rory McIlroy set the world of golf buzzing after his divorce revelation… and why friends say it’s ‘textbook behaviour’ from a sportsman who ‘doesn’t like to be alone’

When Rory McIlroy ruthlessly dispatched his seven-year marriage to pretty Erica Stoll two weeks ago, there was widespread shock from many media quarters.

Theirs, it was thought, was a picture-perfect union, complete with a three-year-old angelic blonde daughter, Poppy.

That shock, however, didn’t extend to one person who is close to McIlroy, who was not surprised by the revelation that the golfer’s marriage to Stoll was over at precisely the same moment he and another pretty blonde, American TV presenter Amanda Balionis, were apparently drawing ever closer.

‘No one will be surprised that Rory has someone else lined up,’ a source close to the multimillionaire Northern Irishman told me in plain terms.

‘It’s textbook behaviour. Look back at his love life. This isn’t a guy who likes to be alone. The next conquest always appears before the current one goes. I’ve known the guy a long time, and there is always an overlap.’

The golfer’s marriage to Stoll was over at precisely the same moment he and another pretty blonde, American TV presenter Amanda Balionis

The golfer’s marriage to Stoll was over at precisely the same moment he and another pretty blonde, American TV presenter Amanda Balionis (pictured), were apparently drawing ever closer
Who is Amanda Balionis, the TV presenter so enamoured with McIlroy? Pictured, Rory McIlroy being interviewed by Amanda Balionis

Who is Amanda Balionis, the TV presenter so enamoured with McIlroy? Pictured, Rory McIlroy being interviewed by Amanda Balionis
Rory McIlroy recently filed for divorce from Erica Stoll – the couple first tied the knot in 2017

Rory McIlroy recently filed for divorce from Erica Stoll – the couple first tied the knot in 2017
Aside from the temptations and travelling which seems to have put paid to McIlroy’s union with Stoll is the fact he has been under considerable professional stress. Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland and team Europe and wife Erica Stoll attend the opening ceremony for the 43rd Ryder

Aside from the temptations and travelling which seems to have put paid to McIlroy’s union with Stoll is the fact he has been under considerable professional stress. Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland and team Europe and wife Erica Stoll attend the opening ceremony for the 43rd Ryder Cup
And, indeed, 35-year-old McIlroy’s past seems to affirm the confidence of this statement.

After all, he famously broke the heart of his first love, Holly Sweeney – whom he met when she was 14 and he was 16 – when they split in 2011 after he fell for Caroline Wozniacki, the World No 1 tennis star.

Rory McIlroy’s divorce from Erica Stoll shines a light on ‘hard life’ of Golf WAGs with stars surrounded by ‘hangers on and beautiful women’
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And of course, he went on to notoriously break Wozniacki’s heart in 2014, dumping her just after she had sent out their wedding invitations.

Two years prior to their devastating split, he had met New Yorker Stoll, who worked for the Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA). And, in the very week his divorce from Stoll was announced, all eyes were on McIlroy’s seemingly burgeoning relationship with CBS presenter Amanda Balionis, as they flirted together in a television interview.

My source agreed, saying: ‘I think he and Amanda are close, and there are lots of rumours circulating. She’s his type – blonde, which is his preference.

‘I was very close to Rory when his relationship with Caroline ended, and we were telling him not to be rash.

‘But he was desperate to move on once he’d made the decision. He’d decided he wanted someone homely and not dashing around all over the place at sports events.

‘Now he’s bored with homely and is bound to go for someone dashing around all over the place and going to sports events. It’s funny, really. Caroline must be laughing her socks off.’

In McIlroy’s past, there is also a high-profile romance with model Nadia Forde in 2014, and there were even rumoured links to Meghan Markle, pre-Prince Harry, in the same year.

But in the context of the bunkers and bunk-ups world of international golf, even this makes him pretty much one of the innocents.

During golf tournaments, there is a lively social scene. Players and their entourages can be found in hotel bars or local restaurants as the tour moves from country