Rory McIlroy and wife, Erica Stoll’s daughter, Poppy, has become somewhat of a star since her epic putt during the 2025 Masters Par 3 Tournament. Fresh off last year’s performance, Poppy is now armed with her own putter, per her request.
Ahead of the Masters, McIlroy is not taking credit for his daughter’s personality. The golfer described the couple’s daughter as a “mini Erica,” admitting that Poppy is a lot more like his wife than himself.
“I think Poppy, like she’s a mini Erica,” McIlroy told reporters on April 7, 2026. “It’s like living with two of them, which is great a lot of the time. She is the most unbelievably polite and respectful and well-behaved little girl, and I really love that she started to get into the game a lot more, and it all stemmed from the putt last year at the Par 3.
“So she made sure that I brought her putter up this year so she could hit the putt with her putter and not mine. Yeah, that’s been amazing to — and as well, just to see her grow up to have her travel the world to see different places, to give her a life that I could only dream about when I was that age, that’s been the coolest thing.”
Here’s what you need to know about McIlroy and Stoll ahead of the Masters.
Rory McIlroy & Wife, Erica Stoll, Appear To Be Thriving After Divorce Rumors
GettyRory McIlroy met Erica Stoll while she was working for the PGA.
After finally notching the elusive Masters win, McIlroy celebrated making golf history with Stoll and Poppy. It was a full circle moment after the couple contemplated divorce in 2024, before calling off the split months later.
During the Netflix docu-series “Full Swing” Season 3, McIlroy was candid about the impact of his family being in the spotlight for reasons other than golf.
“There’s parts of my life that I like to keep as private as possible,” McIlroy said at the time, per People.com. “Unfortunately, in this line of work, that isn’t always possible.”
“… I think it was a wake-up call for me to say, ‘Let’s just focus on the golf for a little bit.’”
Rory McIlroy Met Wife, Erica, When She Was Working for the PGA
Stoll and McIlroy met while she was working for the PGA. During a January 15, 2017, interview with the Irish Independent, McIlroy revealed why things clicked upon initially meeting Stoll.
“The thing I love about it is that we were friends before anything romantic happened,” McIlroy noted at the time. “We met when she was working for the PGA of America, and renting a condo in Palm Beach, and I found it refreshing being with someone who was living a normal life rather than, ‘Oh! My jet is 30 minutes late!’
“I could speak to her about anything, we ended up spending a bit of time together and realized that there was something more there. I love that she knows everything about me, and there was no judgement there. There was no judgement from day one, which is huge, because that’s very hard to find for someone in my position.”
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