Rory pops the question to end year on a high
IF anyone thinks Paris has lost its allure as the world’s most romantic city following the terror attacks, just listen to Rory McIlroy. Two weeks ago he headed to the city of light for a long-planned visit with his girlfriend Erica Stoll, not knowing what to expect in the wake of the shootings last month that claimed the lives of 130 people.
He came back engaged to be married.
‘I wouldn’t say it was a traditional proposal in any sense,’ said the 26-year- old, speaking for the first time about the happy event. ‘We had planned the trip in May but we were unsure whether to go after what happened. So we decided to go and if we didn’t like it, or the mood of the place, we were going to go somewhere else. But when we got there, it just felt great. There were security checks as you went into the shops but people were just getting on with things. So we felt comfortable, and I thought if I proposed at the start of the trip it might make it even better. So we went out for dinner and that was that.’
The engagement rounded off a buoyant month for McIlroy, which began with him winning the Race to Dubai and also included a laser eye operation that has turned his vision from being very good to pin sharp. But it’s the happiness he has found in his personal life that has inevitably made the biggest headlines.
McIlroy has been engaged once before, of course, to the tennis player Caroline Wozniacki two years ago, but the contrast could hardly be more stark. There will be no great celebrity whirl this time. Indeed, this might be the only occasion McIlroy ever goes into any detail about his grounded American fiancee, a former PGA Tour employee whom he met at the 2012 Ryder Cup at Medinah, and who will bring a new-found sense of serenity to his major championship challenge next year.
‘I know you’ve seen Erica around tournaments a lot but we really have tried to keep it low key,’ he said. ‘She is a low-key person but she brings a level of normality to everything. She has a calming presence and that’s not just on me, it is noticeable in any company. She never wants to be the centre of attention and is always comfortable in the background. It is great having someone like that and someone who knows what it is all about, having been around the game.
‘She has been a great influence on me and has brought such a great balance to my life, between who I am when people see me out in the public eye and who I am at home. So that side of my life is really good just now. We are excited, our parents are excited, so it is a really happy time.’
McIlroy makes clear that going forward he wants the spotlight to be on the professional, not the personal.
‘It’s about balance isn’t it?’ he said. ‘I’m all for people scrutinis- ing my golf or criticising me for rupturing an ankleligament playing football with my mates. But you have to be happy away from the course and the people around you have to be happy. If you have thatbalance, it makes it so much easier to play.’
The Northern Irishman spoke to Sportsmail at the Dublin headquarters of Facebook, where he was doing a Q&A for his followers.
On Sunday he will attend the SPOTY awards in Belfast — a pretty good effort given the ludicrous fact that he was overlooked for the main prize last year, despite compiling the greatest season in the history of European golf — before heading over to Rochester, New York, where he will spend Christmas with Erica and her family.
As for wedding plans, they are on hold at the moment. One look at the hectic schedule next year, with four majors, an Olympics and a Ryder Cup, might explain why. ‘We’ve nothing planned right now and there is definitely no rush,’ he said. ‘It is going to be such a busy year and I don’t think anything like that (a wedding) is going to happen.’
As he prepares to head into the Dublin traffic and home to Holywood, McIlroy cuts a picture of contentment, and no wonder. Both literally following his eye operation and metaphorically thanks to Erica, everything has come into sharp focus.
Watch him fly next year.
“We’re excited, our parents are excited — it is a happy time”