Erica Stoll is Rory McIlroy's New Girlfriend
Who is Rory McIlroy dating these days? A PGA of America employee named Erica Stoll.
Rumors of a McIlroy-Stoll romance first cropped up in early 2015, but something that just happened is pretty much the confirmation that they are dating. And what was that? McIlroy ventured to Rochester, New York, for a date with Stoll, who is from the area.
The Rochester Democrat & Chronicle newspaper reported:
The top-ranked golfer in the world was seen Saturday night having dinner at 2Vine in downtown Rochester and then stopped in at Magpie Pub in the trendy Park Avenue neighborhood. ..."As they were leaving, everybody in the restaurant was shouting, 'Oh my God, that's Rory McIlroy! That's Rory McIlroy!' " 2Vine hostess Jordan Cannan said.
The dinner reservation for four was in Stoll's name, said another hostess, Dakotah Schickling.
Stoll is 29 years old, three years older than McIlroy, and is the manager of championship volunteer operations for the PGA of America. In addition to graduating high school in Rochester, she also graduated from the Rochester Institute of Technology. She first worked for the PGA when the Senior PGA Championship was played at Oak Hill Country Club in 2008. Stoll was hired as an office manager for the tournament office.
McIlroy and Stoll were first spotted together publicly when she was seen with McIlroy in his native Ireland over the New Year's time period in early 2015. They have kept a very low profile - no photos of them together have yet emerged - and Stoll has tightened up the privacy settings on her social media accounts (when she still uses them at all, which is rarely).
If Stoll and McIlroy have a future together, then they also have something that a lot of couples wish they had: a great story about how they met. That was at the 2012 Ryder Cup at Medinah in Chicago, where, misunderstanding which time zone he was in, Rory was a no-show for the longest time on the day of the singles matches. Stoll is the PGA of America employee who finally noticed that nobody had seen McIlroy and alerted officials higher up the chain of command. A sleepy McIlroy was finally roused and given a police escort to the course, arriving just in the nick of time.
McIlroy wound up winning that match, helping lead the amazing Team Europe comeback to win. (Thanks Erica!) Rory was with Caroline Wozniacki at the time, but when that relationship split up McIlroy and Stoll became reacquainted.
Just a couple crazy kids in love. Or at least lust. Best wishes to them.