Rory McIlroy has filed for divorce after seven years of marriage, according to court records in Palm Beach County, Fla., in a stunning development at the PGA Championship.
McIlroy and his wife, Erica Stoll, had a fairytale meeting during the Ryder Cup in 2012, began dating two years later and married in 2017. They have a daughter, Poppy, born in September 2020.
TMZ first reported the filing, which took place on Monday. No documents from the application for dissolution of marriage were immediately available.
McIlroy’s attorney was listed as Thomas Sasser, the same attorney who represented Tiger Woods when his wife divorced him in 2010.
“Rory McIlroy’s communications team confirmed today that a divorce has been filed. They emphasized Rory’s desire to ensure that this difficult time is as respectful and amicable as possible,” said a statement from his manager, Sean O’Flaherty.
He said there would be no further comment.
McIlroy arrived at Valhalla on Tuesday. It has been 10 years since he won a major, the last at Valhalla in 2014 for the PGA Championship. The pre-tournament press conference was scheduled for Wednesday.
McIlroy and Stoll met under unusual circumstances. He worked for the PGA of America in 2012 during the Ryder Cup at Medinah in suburban Chicago, where McIlroy nearly missed his Sunday singles match because he said he forgot he was in the Central Time Zone.
Stoll arranged for a police escort to Medinah and McIlroy just arrived in time. He won his match over Keegan Bradley as Europe rallied to win.
McIlroy was dating tennis star Caroline Wozniacki at the time. They got engaged just over a year later, but then McIlroy broke it off over the phone.
He and Stoll began dating later that year. They got engaged in 2015.
McIlroy filed for divorce a day after winning the Wells Fargo Championship in Charlotte, North Carolina, his second consecutive PGA Tour victory and the 26th of his career. Asked if he planned to go straight to Valhalla on Sunday night, McIlroy said: “I’ll probably go home and just do a reset and then go to Louisville tomorrow night or Tuesday morning.”
The divorce filing comes amid chaos in golf created by the launch of Saudi-backed LIV Golf. McIlroy has been a central figure for the past two years, harshly criticizing LIV and then changing his views and pushing for some form of reunion.
He resigned from the PGA Tour’s board of directors last November and has since been involved in a plan to rejoin the board by replacing Webb Simpson. This move was met with resistance from other player managers. Instead, McIlroy was appointed to a committee negotiating with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund to potentially become a minority investor.
Associated Press writer Terry Spencer in Palm Beach, Fla., contributed to this report.
