Rory McIlroy did not inform his ex-wife Erica Stoll that he intended to divorce her in person, according to a report.
The PGA Tour star filed for divorce from Stoll after seven years of marriage, just 24 hours after winning the Wells Fargo Championship in Charlotte, North Carolina.
However, it has now emerged that the four-time top winner hired a private investigator to serve divorce papers on Stoll at his family home.
Stoll, a native of New York state, received the legal documents from Carl Woods, a Palm Beach police officer who also leads a lawsuit serving the company CW Services & Associates, according to court documents obtained by the Belfast Telegraph.
Woods showed up unannounced at the McIlroys’ lavish $22 million marital mansion in Jupiter, Florida, at 10:30 a.m. ET on May 13, and handed Stoll a copy of the McIlroy divorce petition.
Rory McIlroy reportedly hired a private investigator to serve divorce papers on his wife Erica Stoll.
The citation describes Stoll as white with blonde hair, in her 30s, thin and between 5 feet 7 and 5 feet 8 inches tall.
The four-time major winner signed the divorce papers digitally on May 9 while competing in the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow, which he won by beating Xander Schauffele by five strokes, according to court records.
Stoll, who shares a three-year-old daughter, Poppy, with the professional golfer, has 20 days to file a written response to the petition with the circuit court clerk from the day he received the notice, according to the documents.
“A phone call will not protect you,” the citation said. ‘Your written response, including the case number listed above and the names of the parties, must be submitted if you want the court to hear your side of the case.
‘If you do not file your answer on time, you may lose the case and subsequently your wages, money and property may be confiscated without notice by the court.
‘There are other legal requirements. You may want to call a lawyer right away. If you don’t know a lawyer, you can call a lawyer referral service or a legal aid office (listed in the phone book).
On 26 May, when the Belfast Telegraph published its report, Stoll had not yet responded.
Court documents filed in Palm Beach County on May 13 and obtained by DailyMail.com claim their marriage was “irretrievably broken.”
The Northern Irishman and Stoll married in 2017 (pictured at the 2023 Ryder Cup)
The couple share a three-year-old daughter, Poppy, who was born in 2020 (Erica and Poppy pictured in 2021).
The divorce petition also claims that the couple had signed a prenuptial agreement. However, the details of the agreement have not been disclosed.
McIlroy’s lawyer was listed as Thomas Sasser, the same lawyer who represented Tiger Woods when his wife divorced him in 2010.
The filing also calls for joint custody and the establishment of a parenting plan for Poppy.
McIlroy and Stoll married in 2017 and share daughter Poppy, whom they welcomed in 2020.
mcilroy, whose career earnings on the PGA Tour total nearly $87 million, met Erica, a New York state native, during the 2012 Ryder Cup in Medinah in Illinoisin where he worked for the PGA of America.
He had previously credited the American with helping him reach his departure time in Medinah, thanks to a police escort, after the alarm was missed.
He then won his match over Keegan Bradley as part of what was later hailed as the “Medinanah Miracle”.
Although they initially met at the Ryder Cup that year, it wasn’t until a few years later that the pair entered into a relationship.
McIlroy and Stoll got together after his split from Caroline Wozniacki in 2014
A few months after calling off his engagement to tennis star Caroline Wozniacki in 2014, McIlroy and Stoll got together before getting engaged a year later.
The golfer is said to have dumped his then-fiancee Wozniacki in a three-minute phone call hours after telling her he loved her. Their separation occurred in May 2014, before getting married in November.
McIlroy’s breakup with Wozniacki came days before the BMW PGA Championship in England, which he won. In the same event the year before, he tied for 96th place.
It’s an eerily similar pattern for the golfer, who won his 26th tournament on the PGA Tour, with his fourth victory at the Wells Fargo Championship in another dominant performance amid a divorce lawsuit.
Two weeks earlier, he took yet another trophy to his cabinet, winning the Zurich Classic alongside his friend and Ryder Cup teammate, Ireland’s Shane Lowry, and the duo celebrated their win with an impromptu performance of ‘Don’t Stop Believing’ by Journey.
Erica has regularly been seen supporting her PGA husband at his tournaments, including the 2023 Ryder Cup in Rome, where she wowed in a stunning strapless black dress on the Spanish Steps.
He was also on McIlroy’s bag for the Masters Par-3 competition with his daughter Poppy in 2023. However, the McIlroy family was notably absent from the traditional annual event.
Erica grew up in New York and graduated from Rochester Institute of Technology with a degree in marketing in 2008. She then went on to work for the United States Professional Golf Association.
McIlroy split from tennis star Caroline Wozniacki in 2014, months before they got married.
The golfer is said to have dumped his then-fiancee (pictured) in a three-minute phone call.
The 35-year-old has regularly been seen supporting her PGA husband at his tournaments.
She was spotted at The Players in March when the PGA Tour shared a touching clip of her and Poppy greeting McIlroy on the 18th green.
The golfer was seen lifting his daughter into his arms to hug her and Erica telling him that they had been watching her birdie-birdie finish.
And Erica was also seen supporting Rory during the second season of the Netflix series Full Swing, which documented the 2023 PGA Tour.
Scenes showed her chilling Rory during a fit and giving him a kiss as Team Europe took the lead in last year’s Ryder Cup.
After becoming a mother, Stoll is said to have thrown herself into parenthood, making Poppy her priority, especially when the impact of McIlroy’s PGA Tour lifestyle hit the road.
“A point of contention in Rory’s marriage to Erica was that Erica felt alone in her marriage,” a source told Us Weekly. It was difficult to marry Rory.
The source close to the couple also revealed that their marriage had reached a “breaking point.”
“She knew what she was getting into with her career, but once they had Poppy, things really changed and she had a new perspective,” the source added.
“Erica was usually absent during most of her tournaments and was very focused on Poppy.”