EXCLUSIVERory McIlroy’s problem with women is that ‘he thinks he is more famous and better looking than he actually is’ and ‘wants to be treated like a spoiled teenager’.

EXCLUSIVERory McIlroy’s problem with women is that ‘he thinks he is more famous and better looking than he actually is’ and ‘wants to be treated like a spoiled teenager’.

By Barbara Mcmahon and Nicola Byrne
On the eve of the annual Masters golf tournament in Augusta, Georgia, it is a cherished tradition that competitors and past winners play a shortened nine-hole course with their families.

Last year, world No2 Rory McIlroy attended the joyful event with his toddler daughter Poppy and wife Erica Stoll, both sporting matching white jumpsuits with the Northern Irish golfer’s name proudly emblazoned on their backs.

The picture-perfect family delighted the watching crowd as two-year-old Poppy tumbled on the perfectly manicured green, giggled with her daddy and was at one point held aloft by him as an adoring, and perfectly coiffed Erica looked on.

Rory McIlroy with his wife Erica Stoll and daughter Poppy, who are dressed in matching white

Rory McIlroy with his wife Erica Stoll and daughter Poppy, who are dressed in matching white jumpsuits at the Masters in 2023
Last week 35-year-old Rory McIlroy filed for divorce in Florida from his wife of seven years, saying their marriage was ‘irretrievably broken’

Last week 35-year-old Rory McIlroy filed for divorce in Florida from his wife of seven years, saying their marriage was ‘irretrievably broken’
McIlroy’s estranged wife Erica the day after it emerged he was filing for divorce. She appeared to still be wearing her wedding ring

McIlroy’s estranged wife Erica the day after it emerged he was filing for divorce. She appeared to still be wearing her wedding ring
Just weeks after publicly jettisoning tennis star Caroline Wozniacki in 2014, six months before they were due to marry, McIlroy went on to win the PGA championship

Just weeks after publicly jettisoning tennis star Caroline Wozniacki in 2014, six months before they were due to marry, McIlroy went on to win the PGA championship
Little wonder McIlroy declared the occasion ‘always one of the best days of the year’. This April, however, there was no such repeat of the charming vignette, although McIlroy was competing.

No explanation was given for Erica’s absence and if onlookers were concerned most concluded that the golfer was probably just focusing on his Masters preparation as he made his 16th attempt to win a coveted champion’s Green Jacket and his tenth time looking for that elusive Grand Slam.

The following month it was a similar story, with no sign of the willowy Erica when he won the Wells Fargo championship in North Carolina. And the golfer failed to mention her at all on US Mother’s Day last weekend, when he chose to pay a gushing tribute to his mother Rosie instead.

Then last week came the news that has shocked golf fans around the world. Seemingly out of the blue, 35-year-old McIlroy filed for divorce in Florida from his wife of seven years, saying their marriage was ‘irretrievably broken’.

McIlroy has instructed the same lawyer who oversaw Tiger Woods’ divorce from Elin Nordegren, mother of his two children. In striking echoes of his infamous split from fiancee and former No 1 tennis player Caroline Wozniacki almost exactly a decade earlier, he gave virtually no warning of the separation and acted with an apparent ruthlessness that has ricocheted around the globe.

And now the question being asked by many is: has McIlroy coolly dispatched his devoted wife and the mother of his child in a calculated bid to return to the top of his game?

For, it has been noted, just weeks after publicly jettisoning Wozniacki in 2014 – six months before they were due to marry and after the couple’s wedding invitations had been sent out – McIlroy went on to win the same PGA championship he hopes to triumph in again this weekend.

‘Everybody is absolutely stunned by this decision, and the timing of it makes it even more of a

mystery, coming just before a major tournament that he has, arguably, the best chance in a decade of winning,’ says sports writer and author April Tod, who has followed McIlroy’s career closely over the years.

‘It’s also coming up to the US Open and then the Olympics, and they are all tournaments he wants to play and do well in. If he’s got all this turbulence in his personal life, then I don’t know how he’s going to compartmentalise it all.