Rory McIlroy spoke from the heart following his 2026 Masters win, shouting out his wife, daughter and parents in an emotional trophy acceptance speech on Sunday, April 12.
“First and foremost, my wife and daughter, Erica [Stoll] and Poppy,” McIlroy, 36, began. “They have to put up with me at home, and trust me, sometimes that’s a tough thing to do.”
McIlroy and Stoll, 38, began dating in 2015 and married two years later. They welcomed Poppy in September 2020.
McIlroy continued, “They have been my biggest supporters, and this has definitely turned into Poppy’s favorite week of the year. I don’t know if it’s because of the Par 3 Tournament, or all you can eat ice cream in the players’ services building.”
McIlroy’s words came after he held off Scottie Scheffler to win the 2026 Masters, making him the first back-to-back champion since Tiger Woods in 2001 and 2002.
Before this year’s iconic tournament began, Stoll and Poppy both served as McIlroy’s caddies during the annual Par 3 Tournament. It served as a public show of support less than two years after Stoll and McIlroy appeared headed for divorce.
The couple soon reconciled, with McIlroy saying in a June 2024 statement that the couple “realized that our best future was as a family together.”
Talk of their marriage began to swirl again before the 2026 Masters, thanks to revelations in a new biography, titled, Rory: The Heartache and Triumph of Golf’s Most Human Superstar. In the book, released April 7, author Alan Shipnuck wrote that “rumors about McIlroy’s love life” weren’t “totally surprising given his ribald streak.”
Shipnuk added, “It didn’t help that Erica had become a neo-Elin Woods [Tiger’s ex-wife], never doing any interviews and remaining unknown to the golf public.”
The book also claimed that McIlroy and Stoll began flirting when they first met, while the golfer was dating tennis star Caroline Wozniacki.
“He was throwing every ounce of game he had at Erica,” a former PGA Tour employee told Shipnuck. “It was not subtle. It became a running joke among a few of us: Has Rory closed the deal yet?”
Neither McIlroy nor Wozniacki, 35, have addressed the possible overlap in their relationship.
“[Caroline] has moved on with her life,” a source exclusively told Us Weekly in April 2025. “She has two beautiful children and a third on the way and a loving husband in David Lee. The Rory stuff is water under the bridge at this point.”
Elsewhere in the book, pro golfer Paul McGinley laid out the challenges of being married to McIlroy.
“It can’t be easy being Rory’s wife,” McGinley, 59, wrote. “I’m sure it’s not easy for her because she’s quiet by nature. She kind of keeps her thoughts to herself. She’s had to find where she fits in and where she doesn’t.”
