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Hailing from Northern Ireland, Rory McIlroy has won four Major Championships till now, namely, the 2011 U.S. Open, the 2012 and 2014 PGA Championship, and the 2014 Open Championship. He has spent more than 100 weeks as the World No. 1 as per the official world golf rankings. Rory McIlroy is undoubtedly one of the most decorated golfers in the world today.
Besides his professional success, the former World No. 1's personal life is joyous with his beautiful wife and daughter. In 2017, he married Erica Stoll, who gave birth last year to a baby girl they named Poppy.
Rory McIlroy met Erica at the 2012 Ryder Cup
Rory McIlroy first met Erica Stoll at the 2012 Ryder Cup when he overslept due to a time zone mismatch and almost missed his tee time. Erica, who was working as a PGA official at the time, came to his rescue, helping him get into the course with the help of the police. He misinterpreted his tee time at 11:25 am CT as 12:25 pm ET.
Though they met in 2012, they did not start dating until late 2014 as Rory McIlroy was dating Canadian tennis player Caroline Wozniacki at the time. Rory and Caroline had started dating in 2011 when the latter was the no. 1 tennis player in the world. Later in 2014, McIlroy called off their engagement just a few days after they had sent out their wedding invitations.
Rory ended their relationship over a phone call, which really upset Wozniacki.
"I thought at least, you know, I would get a face-to-face or something, but there was nothing," Wozniacki said on In Depth with Graham Bensinger. "It was just a phone call and I did not hear from him again."
Rory later explained that too much media and public appearance had become troublesome for him, which is why he called off the engagement.
"You can never detach yourself and try to come back to the real world. And that's why I feel in such a good place now. I don't feel Erica wants to change me in any way. I can be myself around her; there's no bulls***, no acting, no show."
Meanwhile, Rory McIlroy and Erica Stoll have been friends since their first meeting. Their friendship was eventually elevated to a relationship in late 2014. At the time, Erica was working with PGA of America as Manager of the Championship Volunteer Operations for the organization since 2008.
Rory told Cool FM radio:
"We were friends for a couple of years and we knew each other sort of from the golf circuit, and in summer 2014, towards the end of the summer, started to spend a bit more time together and it went from there."
The pair got engaged in Paris in 2015 and then got married in 2017 at Ashford Castle in Cong, County Mayo. The wedding was a grand private affair, which included many well-known celebrities. Sergio Garcia, Paul McGinley, Shane Lowry, and One Direction's Niall Horan were a few names among them all.
In August 2021, Rory McIlroy and Erica welcomed their daughter, Poppy Kennedy McIlroy. The couple likes to keep their lives private and Erica no longer works for the PGA. She accompanies Rory on his tours and spends most of the time with her family.
