Rory McIlroy completed his long-awaited career Grand Slam when he clinched Masters glory at Augusta last month, while the finishing touches were also being put to another of the Northern Irishman’s projects.
Having received his Green Jacket and celebrated with his wife Erica Stoll and daughter Poppy at Augusta, McIlroy jetted back to the UK with his family.
He revealed last week that one of his first stops had been to Wentworth, home of the famous private golf club in Surrey, where it costs £200,000 to be a member.
The club is surrounded by the Wentworth Estate, which has become the home of several of the games top golfers, celebrities, politicians and billionaires.
McIlroy, speaking to the Telegraph, the Northern Irishman confirmed he had visited ahead of moving into a new home on the exclusive estate, before travelling to his parents in Holywood.
‘Straight after Augusta we travelled over to see the house as it was going through the finishing touches,’ McIlroy said.
Rory McIlroy and Erica Stoll are set to move into a new estate in Wentworth, Surrey, in June
Stoll and McIlroy have been living in the Florida heat – a climate Stoll hasn’t particularly enjoyed
They have been living with their daughter Poppy in their Jupiter home in Florida since 2017
‘It was fun to see and we could have stayed in it, but we wanted to get over to Holywood.’
McIlroy reportedly purchased the sprawling estate in 2023 and was claimed to have spent up to £9million in developing the family home.
The development had continued despite McIlroy filing for divorce from Stoll last year, seven years after the couple had tied the knot. The golf star later U-turned in his decision, stating they had ‘resolved their differences’ and were looking forward to a ‘new beginning’.
The reversal came just ahead of the US Open last June, a month after the divorce papers were initially filed. After this year’s tournament, the McIlroy family are expected to make major step of relocating to their new Wentworth home.
McIlroy and Stoll have been living in a £16.5m mansion in Jupiter, Florida, since buying the property from fellow golfer Ernie Els back in 2017.
The home resides on 2.4 acres of highly desired land and is believed to have 10 bathrooms in addition to the nine bedrooms across the property.
The South Florida residence boasts a luxury infinity pool, as well as a games room, tennis court, home theatre, recording studio and state-of-the-art gym. The 13,000-square-foot home also has a six-car garage.
McIlroy’s decision to relocate comes after he admitted in the Netflix documentary Full Swing that Stoll favours a cooler climate than the heat of Florida.
McIlroy revealed he had visited the mansion immediately after his Masters win at Augusta
McIlroy and Stoll are expected to relocate with their daughter Poppy back to the UK
McIlroy bought the land in 2023 and work has recently been completed on the mansion
‘If it was up to her [Erica], she wouldn’t move to England straightaway, but she definitely wants to spend more time there,’ McIlroy said.
German golfer Martin Kaymer, in conversation with McIlroy, revealed how Erica once told him during a chance meeting in a local Starbucks ‘I really don’t like the sun’ – Kaymer revealed that he joked back: ‘”Your state’s called the Sunshine State, right?”‘
And another fellow player, JJ Spaun, also hinted at the fact that Rory and Erica could move to the UK.
Speaking on the Fore Play podcast, US golfer Spaun said after he had been defeated by Rory in the Players Championship, the golfing great had hinted at a permanent London base as he and Erica continue to try and re-find the spark in their relationship.
Spaun said: ‘He’s super cool. We were talking about the UK. I know he’s Northern Irish, but I asked him if he ever hangs out in London. Because my wife has got a really good friend that lives out there and loves going there.’
He continued: ‘I asked him about that, and he said, “Oh yeah, I’m building a house out there”. He kept it really friendly and light, and then we chatted a lot until the back nine, and that was it.’
McIlroy is expected to keep his Florida home despite the move, with the star reportedly also owning apartments in New York and Dubai.
The Wentworth mansion has been described in planning documents as a ‘large, detached dwelling sited centrally within a substantive plot’.
Ernie Els has a residence on the estate and has helped redesign Wentworth’s golf courses
Elton John and the late Bruce Forsyth are among the celebrities to have owned properties
Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson were gifted a property on the estate after their marriage, but the residence was sold to Kazakh billionaire Timur Kulibayev in 2007 for £15million
Last month, McIlroy was granted ‘very special’ permission to install a heat pump for a huge outdoor swimming pool after a heated planning battle.
He had previously been granted planning permission for a dining and utility room extension, a new roof and internal alterations, as well as an outdoor pool, play centre and 5ft-high water feature wall.
McIlroy looks set to join an exclusive club to have lived on the 1,750 acres Wentworth Estate.
Among the current residents include fellow golfers Thomas Bjorn and Els, with the latter having served as the long-time world-wide touring professional of the Wentworth Club and has overseen redesigns of the course.
The eye-catching list of former residents includes Prince Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson, with Queen Elizabeth having gifted the couple a residence following their marriage. The couple had moved in back in 1990, but the property was later sold to Kazakh billionaire Timur Kulibayev back in 2007 for £15million.
The late Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky was a former resident, before selling his home in 2012, while the former King of Thailand Prajadhipok and Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet were among those to have owned properties.
Pinochet was famously placed under house arrest at his Wentworth residence for almost 18 months, with armed guards required to protect him and his wife as crowds supported victims over his brutal regime.
The late Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky was among the famous former residents
Former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet was visited by Margaret Thatcher in 1999 while he was under house arrest at his Wentworth property
Pinochet was famously held under house arrest for 18 months and required heavy security
Wentworth has proved attractive to stars from the world of entertainment with Sir Elton John and Bruce Forsyth among those to have called the neighbourhood home.
Current residents reportedly range from the Sultan of Brunei to Gary Numan, to former sporting stats including cricketer Kevin Pietersen and ex-Chelsea striker Andriy Shevchenko.
Numan, during an interview in 2019, admitted he had been convinced his property was haunted and was ‘freaked out’ by the experience.
‘I had a big neo-Georgian house on Wentworth golf course, but I was convinced it was haunted,’ the musician said.
‘Some weird s*** had been going on – I’d come home and the house was in darkness when I was convinced I’d left the lights on.
‘So one day, I made a point of turning on every single light in the house. I got back from the studio and – f*** me – the house was in total darkness. It freaked me out completely.’
While Numan expressed concerns over his own home being haunted, local residents have long complained about the number of ‘ghost’ properties on the exclusive estate. Numerous residences have reportedly remained dormant and unused with their wealthy residents living elsewhere.
Neighbours claimed to MailOnline last year the property where Forsyth spent his final years had fallen into a sorry state after it was sold by his widow Wilnelia for £5.7 million in April 2020.
Locals have complained about the number of properties owned by the rich and famous which have been left empty
A palatial home is left empty on the millionaires row estate of Wentworth in Surrey
The doors and windows of an imposing mansion on the Wentworth estate are boarded up
A gate on the estate with warning signs pinned to it. Some of the mansions on the estate have been left to rot
Imposing black gates have remained mainly locked with nearby residents claiming that the new owners have rarely been seen
The main gates had reportedly remained closed while moss and weeds have grown over the tennis court and surrounding lawns, a far cry from the days when Forsyth, a keen tennis fan, would be out enjoying his favourite pastime.
The house features a ten-seater cinema room, ten reception rooms and bedrooms, library, gymnasium and swimming pool, spa area and a wine cellar.
Wilinela sold it to a Bermuda-based businesswoman and decided to move to a smaller property nearby.
She revealed at the time: ‘It was hard to leave a place with so many happy memories for me and my family, but I think they all understand. It was sometimes sad to be in such a home without Bruce.’
Similarly, England captain Harry Kane purchased a six-bedroom mansion for £6.6m in September 2021, starting a major project to renovate it for his family.
But before it was completed, Kane moved to Bayern Munich, meaning it has remained locked up and empty with the striker, his wife Katie and their four children unable to enjoy the luxurious property, which comes with a swimming pool, spa area, tennis court and is set across two acres.
The nearby Lily Manor, which is located on a three-acre plot, features six bedrooms, eight bathrooms and comes with an outdoor heated swimming pool, tennis court, triple garage and a two-storey annex.
It was sold to the head of a major international investment fund for £19.5 million in October 2022.
An aerial shot of Bruce Forsyth’s former mansion on the Wentworth estate, which was sold by his wife to a developer and since left empty
One stunning property on the wealthy estate called Straidarran previously belonged to Sir Bruce Forsyth
Neighbours have claimed that the main gates have remained closed while moss and weeds have grown over the tennis court and surrounding lawns
An aerial view of the tennis court at the old home of Bruce Forsyth, which was sold in 2020
The mansion has four reception rooms, five en-suite bedrooms, an indoor leisure complex, including a swimming pool, plus a cinema and entertainment lounge. It comes with a garage for five cars, landscaped gardens and accommodation for live-in staff while the interior also has a lift that can take up to six people.
Residents have also claimed its black gates have remained mainly locked with nearby residents claiming that the new owners have rarely been seen.
One local told MailOnline last year: ‘This is just one of many empty homes on the Wentworth estate, which is a real pity because this is a fantastic place to live in.
‘It seems that a lot of people have just bought them for investment purposes or are having second thoughts about living in the UK. It just goes to show how rich they must be if they can have such a large property and choose not to live in it.’
While reports claim McIlroy is set to move his family permanently back to the UK and take residence at Wentworth, it remains to be seen how often the superstar is at the property.
The nature of the golf circuit will likely keep McIlroy on the move for long periods of time throughout the year, but the star and Stoll are poised to make the significant step by joining Wentworth’s famous residents.
