RELUCTANT lookalike Matthew Chadwick is approached at least every other day by strangers asking if he’s an elite British sportsman.
At 35, he’s the same age as the athlete, who recently made history, but initially had no idea who he was – and what’s more, over a decade later is still not convinced by the resemblance at all.
He gets approached every other day by strangers[/caption]
“Meet your twin! Meet your twin!” spectators shouted as they ushered Matthew towards one of his golfing heroes in 2018.
But Rory McIlroy – who was preparing to tee off at Carnoustie – wasn’t interested. It was the British Open and his head was in the game.
The Northern Irish champion became the sport’s sixth Grand Slam winner last weekend when he won the Masters in Augusta.
Amateur golfer Matthew couldn’t be happier for his doppelganger – though has mixed feelings about the comparison.
During the second day of the Open in 2018, projected onto the big screens was a picture of him wearing a T-shirt saying: “I’m not Rory McIlroy.”
It had been taken by golf TV personality and columnist Eamon Lynch and posted on X – then still called Twitter.
He captioned the post: “A fan trying to avoid confusion at Carnoustie.”
Golf pundit Eamon Lynch shared this post on X in 2018[/caption]
Matthew, an energy consultant from Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, had bought the T-shirt on a whim prior to travelling up to Scotland with his dad.
A keen golfer since he was young, he’d been getting attention from fellow hobbyists in the sport for years at his local club, even before he knew who McIlroy was.
He’d be asked almost daily if he was the pro and then people would gather to watch him tee off, as if expecting him to be just as good.
“Because that was my first Open – that I’d been to with my dad, I thought just for a bit of a laugh I’d play on the fact people would definitely ask me,” Matthew told The Sun.
“And so I thought I’d quickly get a T-shirt made up, I think it cost me £13, that was that, it basically just set the whole thing alight.”
He only wore the shirt the first day of what was four days of play, but once it was online, it couldn’t be forgotten.
Matthew, now 35, said: “I was sitting on the first box, and I just saw people looking at me in their peripherals.
“I didn’t have the shirt on that day. They came up to me afterwards and said ‘you know you look nothing like you do on the internet’. I was thinking, what the hell does that mean?”
He’d fuelled an odd fire, which has lasted until this day. It helps that Matthew still plays golf at least three times a week, not including practice rounds on the driving range.
Rory McIlory made history with Masters win
By Joshua Jones
Rory McIlroy won the Masters in the most dramatic fashion last Sunday, needing a play-off against Ryder Cup team-mate Justin Rose.
After draining the four-foot putt for victory, the Northern Irishman sunk to his knees and broke down in tears.
And he was still overcome with emotion as he embraced his wife Erica and daughter Poppy then headed to the clubhouse.
McIlroy wiped the tears away and acknowledged the congratulations with a polite “thank you”.
He waved his arms in appreciation then took several deep breaths before running both hands over his face and through his hair, seemingly unsure quite how to react.
At the 11th attempt, McIlroy had completed the Grand Slam – only the sixth man in history to do so – and secured the green jacket he so desperately wanted.
And it was clear the magnitude of his achievement would take a while to sink in fully.
McIlroy later broke down in an emotional TV interview as he said: “A moment like that makes all the years and all the close calls worth it.”
“People are very 50/50,” he said. “They’re either it definitely does look like him or it definitely doesn’t. I tell them I don’t care, it’s just my face.
“But they want you to know either way. And some of them take it very seriously. Some people can be so verbal about it.”
Referring back to the 2018 Open, he said: “People started asking me on that second day if I wanted to meet some of the pros or if I wanted to have photoshoots or play golf with them.”
Press were also clambering for interviews. He agreed to one and remembers: “They were asking me questions and I think I was just talking about Justin Rose or something, how he was playing, it’s not what they wanted, and they eventually walked away confused.”
The Lynch tweet meant suddenly Matthew was trending online and he said he “toyed with the idea” of becoming a lookalike professionally.
“I spoke to my cousin, and said where should I go with this? Do you reckon we should set this up properly?
“I went to a convention with lookalikes, there was all these other lookalikes and I just realised this is not for me. I just realised I don’t look enough like him to even warrant the fact, I don’t think anyway.
“I guess that was just self doubt. People keep telling I do even to this day.”
But despite never properly capitalising on it, he has had people contact him offering as much as £1,000 for him to join them on a round of golf.
“They basically always come to me and say ‘we’ll pay you X amount’ and I’ve just debated it at the time.
Inside Rory McIlroy’s incredible lifestyle from Ferrari collection & £30k watches to luxury properties across the globe
By Alex Smith
RORY McIlroy heads home to his luxury Florida mansion £3.2million richer after glory at the Masters.
The Northern Irishman finally got his hands on the green jacket to end his ten-year wait to complete the Grand Slam.
McIlroy burst into tears on the 18th green, sealing victory after a nerve-wracking play-off against Justin Rose.
His wife Erica Stoll and four-year-old daughter Poppy joined him on the Augusta fairway to celebrate the moment.
McIlroy is worth £225m, according to last year’s Sunday Times richlist, and his fortunes are now set to soar.
But he already boasts properties around the world, a stunning garage featuring Ferraris and a luxury watch collection.
Luxury properties
McIlroy has come a long way from his modest childhood in Belfast and now owns a huge mansion in the golf capital of the world in Jupiter, Florida.
His 12,800-square-foot pad was bought for £7.6m from former major winner Ernie Els after he sold his previous home for £9m.
McIlroy’s house is situated near Jack Nicklaus’ ultra exclusive Bear’s Club golf course.
The home has seven bedrooms, ten bathrooms, a balcony overlooking a swimming pool, a games room, tennis court, a recording studio, gym and a home cinema.
Tennis icon Serena Williams and basketball legend Michael Jordan are his neighbours.
Yet McIlroy’s property empire extends to California, where he purchased a six-bedroom mansion for £8.8m in 2019 that has views of the Santa Rose mountains.
Back home in Northern Ireland, he has a 200-acre estate that has a private golf course for him to practice on.
McIlroy also reportedly has apartments in New York and Dubai.
Stunning supercars
His many properties boast stunning garages featuring a range of sports cars.
McIlroy’s collection is supposedly worth over £1m, with a Lamborghini Aventador valued at roughly £450,000 as the pick of the bunch.
A £120,000 Range Rover Sport and £116,000 BMW i8 park next to it.
There are also Ferraris in the shape of a F12 Berlinetta that costs £280,800 and a rare F430 worth £105,000.
The F12 was purchased from golfer Ian Poulter and was described by him as having: “Matte Grigio Silverstone paint and on the rims, a Matte Black roof, interior Grey and burgundy.”
Ones to watch
McIlroy is sponsored by luxury watch brand Omega and his collection is impressive.
He is often spotted wearing a Seamaster Aquaterra with a green dial valued at £5,000.
Back in the 2020 Masters, he sported a limited edition gold £30,000 timepiece.
And the company have made the Speedmaster ’57 worth £9,000 in honour of McIlroy.
In their adverts, he has showed off a stunning £50,000 Aqua Terra Co-Axial Master Chronometer.
Love Life
Before marrying Erica in a plush ceremony in Ireland eight years ago, with entertainment provided by Ed Sheeran, McIlroy dated tennis star Caroline Wozniacki.
They were briefly engaged in 2014 before going their separate ways.
McIlroy’s whirlwind romance with Erica began in 2015, yet they met years before as she worked on the PGA Tour.
After confusion around timings, the former world No1 was set to be late to tee-off at the 2012 Ryder Cup.
But Erica organised a police escort at the last minute to ensure he got their just in time.
They appeared happily married with their daughter Poppy until McIlroy shocked the world by filing for divorce last year.
It came just days before the US Open, refusing to answer questions on his love life and being spotted without his wedding ring at the event.
But one month later, McIlroy and Erica called off their divorce after holding crisis talks in their Jupiter mansion.
He claimed in the initial filing that their relationship was “irretrievably broken” before saying they “realised our best future was as a family together”.
“I usually turn everything down,” he said. “People ask for my booking details and I tell them I don’t have any but I have agreed to some stuff.”
One of the offers that sticks in his mind is being told he could have an honorary membership at a golf club, but only if he’d do a talk at its annual dinner.
“I just thought I don’t have a Northern Irish accent anyway, and I just feel as though it would be received quite badly so I decided against it. What did they want me to talk about?
“If you’re going to be a lookalike you’ve got to sound the part as well because the illusion falls off immediately.”
He’s accepted that he can’t escape it either way. “Whenever I’m having a round of golf, it’s heads turning, people sitting behind me on the first tee. It’s been like that since Rory went pro.”
Matthew’s had plenty of online trolling too and even deleted his social media accounts for a time.
“There’s another guy who is a professional Rory McIlroy lookalike,” he said. “I started to think this is someone’s profession, he’s taking it seriously, I was just do it for a laugh.”
He had the T-shirt made ahead of the 2018 British Open[/caption]
At one time a company even made a replica of the T-shirt he wore at the Open, and used the Lynch photo of him to advertise it. “It’s not my photo, it’s just a photo of me,” he said.
“They were selling it for $20 across the world, but I had nothing to do with that. It was exactly the same as the shirt I had made, which I’ve still got in a cupboard somewhere.
“I have no idea how many they sold or why anyone would buy it.”
Whilst working in a hotel several years ago, Matthew even met a man who claimed to be McIlroy’s dad Gerry.
“He was like ‘you’re that guy’ and I was like yeah. He said ‘I’m his dad, we’ve spoken about it.’
“I thought fair enough, he probably knows what the crack is. I have no accreditation to figure out if that was him or not,” he added, laughing.
Matthew lived in London for a few years before the Covid pandemic and said he would often get stopped on the street and asked for photos.
Even in Cheltenham he reckons he’s stopped at least once every other day, usually on the golf course.
Most people at my club don’t even know my first name. They just call me Rory.
Matthew Chadwick
“I wasn’t playing anywhere near as much golf in London, so it’s equalled out again now,” he said.
“Most people at my club don’t even know my first name. They just call me Rory.”
This time last year Netflix released the second season of golfing documentary series Full Swing. In the first episode, a clip of McIlroy is used where he’s being asked about a lookalike, who Matthew is convinced was him.
“It didn’t come across great for me,” he said. “I remember them talking directly to Rory about it and Rory does a sort of awkward ‘errm’.
“He tries to move past it quite quickly. Maybe he’s talking about me or maybe the other one.
“The overall impression was I was trying overly hard to be recognised as a Rory lookalike. When all I was doing was wearing a shirt to have a bit of a laugh, and it was years ago now.”
Matthew also believes too that generally if he’s not wearing a cap, as McIlroy usually does on the course, “the illusion’s broken”.
“I could never really see it for a long time but I’ve seen photo comparisons and think yeah maybe, okay. As soon as I wear that cap, for some reason, everyone just stops and stares.
“It was only last week I was playing with a different team and people were asking for photos on the tee.
“More people include me in teams, whether they like me or not, or just because I look like Rory, I don’t know.”
He has a similar build to the golfer, and stands a couple of inches taller at 6’1.
“I’m not really bothered by it. I’m nothing special anyway, I’ve got a pretty standard enough life, I’m enjoying where I am. This is the one thing for me that I can’t keep away from.
“People will even show me a photo of me and say you look nothing like this guy, and I’ll be like well that is me,” he said laughing.
McIlroy with the Masters Championship trophy earlier this month[/caption]