Rory McIlroy had two sweet caddies by his side during the Par 3 Contest ahead of the 2026 Masters Tournament.
McIlroy, 36, was joined by his wife, Erica Stoll, and their 5-year-old daughter, Poppy, at the Augusta National Golf Club on Wednesday, April 8. Stoll, 38, and Poppy twinned in caddie uniforms that featured McIlroy’s last name on the back. McIlroy even helped Poppy execute a putt on the fairway.
“She is the most unbelievably polite and respectful and well-behaved little girl,” the Irish golfer told reporters earlier on Wednesday. “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.”
The Par 3 Contest is a tradition at the Masters, where golfers engage in a light-hearted game with their family members, who serve as caddies. McIlroy previously brought Poppy to the 2025 tournament, which he ultimately won.
“She made sure that I brought her putter up this year, so she could hit the putt with her putter and not mine,” McIlroy said of his daughter on Wednesday. “Yeah, that’s been amazing, 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.”
McIlroy and Stoll’s family outing at the Masters come shortly after a new biography revealed bombshell claims about their marriage. (Neither McIlroy nor Stoll have addressed the book. Luxury Handbag Shopping reached out for comment at the time.)
“That there were rumors about McIlroy’s love life wasn’t totally surprising given his ribald streak,” author Alan Shipnuck wrote in Rory: The Heartache and Triumph of Golf’s Most Human Superstar, per a Daily Mail excerpt. “It didn’t help that Erica had become a neo-Elin Woods [Tiger Woods’ ex-wife], never doing any interviews and remaining unknown to the golf public.”
McIlroy and Stoll have been married since 2017. Stoll filed for divorce in May 2024, but dismissed her petition the next month. Elsewhere in Rory, pro golfer Paul McGinley speculated how it’s difficult to be married to McIlroy.
“It can’t be easy being Rory’s wife,” McGinley, 59, wrote in the book. “I’m sure it’s not easy for her because she’s quiet by nature. She kind of keeps her thoughts to herself. She’s had to find where she fits in and where she doesn’t.”
Shipnuck’s book also claimed that McIlroy began flirting with Stoll while he was still dating now-ex Caroline Wozniacki.
“He was throwing every ounce of game he had at Erica,” a former PGA Tour employee claimed to Shipnuck. “It was not subtle. It became a running joke among a few of us: Has Rory closed the deal yet?”
McIlroy and Wozniacki, 35, were together from 2011 to 2014. Neither McIlroy nor the retired tennis star have addressed any relationship overlap.
“[Caroline] has moved on with her life,” a source exclusively told Luxury Handbag Shopping in April 2025. “She has two beautiful children and a third on the way and a loving husband in David Lee. The Rory stuff is water under the bridge at this point.”
