Not untypically for Dublin in June, as we talk in a suite at the city’s Westbury hotel, it is pouring with rain outside. The weather cannot dampen McIlroy’s enthusiasm, though, for a relationship that has done so much to reorder his priorities.
Life away from the celeb circus
Back when he was dating tennis star Caroline Wozniacki, he seemed at ease with the attention lavished upon a sporting power couple, even taking part in an exhibition match with her at Madison Square Garden. But his years with Stoll, an understated young woman with whom he is rarely photographed, have convinced him that it is not the red carpet he craves.
‘It’s a bit like yin and yang, in terms of what I do on the course and how, when I get home, I’m able to detach myself and just be a normal person,’ McIlroy says. ‘It’s great to have that balance, and Erica has given me that. She has made me realise that this is what I want, what I need.’
By increments, he is cutting out elements of the celebrity circus that pursues him everywhere. At the Masters last year, he had Niall Horan of One Direction caddying for him during the ceremonial Par 3 contest, but found that the starburst of photographers’ flashbulbs obscured his task of trying to become the second-youngest player ever to complete the career grand slam, after Tiger Woods.