McIlroy pal chips in with classic car gift
WHAT do you get the man who has everything?
Guests at Rory McIlroy’s wedding must have had come up against that conundrum when they attended his big day at Ashford Castle last April. With a €50m fortune, a mansion in Florida and a beautiful young wife by his side, you might have thought nothing could take the 28-year-old golfer’s breath away.
But one mystery guest managed to do just that. The close friend gifted the star a 1950s Mercedes SL — a model which has been fetching $1m and more in the classic-car marketplace for years.
More recent auctions have taken those figures up a gear — in 2012, one rare 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Alloy sold for a record €4.62m.
Over the moon with his new toy, car enthusiast McIlory took it on a road trip through Italy with his new bride Erica Stoll for their honeymoon.
Along the way, the lovedup couple took in Milan’s extravagant Duomo cathedral, enjoyed truffle dishes in the famed Dulcis Vitis restaurant, visited the Piazza del Duomo in the heart of Florence and finished their dream holiday with a spot of wine tasting at the Rinuccio 1180 restaurant, enjoying the breathtaking views of the gently rolling hills and olive groves of the Chianti region.
More recently, the Northern Irish golf pro — whose big wins include the US Open, the British Open and two PGA Championships — finished the year in style, indulging in a bottle of 2000 Chateau Mouton Rothschild worth €4,500 in Ashford Castle, before getting back on the course to prepare for his next competition.
Meanwhile, McIlroy said yesterday that he felt there had been an overreaction to an interview he gave to the Telegraph in which he revealed he had an irregular heartbeat.
Although tests showed he has a flat or inverted T wave, he insisted it was not a cause for major concern.
He posted on his social media page on Instagram: “It’s really not that big of a deal and nothing to worry about.”