Rory McIlroy planning permanent move back to UK
Rory McIlroy is planning on moving back to the UK on a permanent basis, reversing the trend of British superstars upping sticks to sunnier, not to mention more tax-efficient, climes.
The world No 2 has always retained a property in Holywood, a suburb in his home city of Belfast, but has been primarily based in South Florida for the last five years, having lived in Dubai before that.
And although the 34-year-old’s relocation to “the London area” is not imminent – he and US wife Erica are likely to wait until three-year-old daughter Poppy is ready to go to secondary school – the McIlroys are serious about making the journey less well-trodden among the UK’s multi-millionaire sporting elite.
The life choice has been the talk of the range at the Jumeirah Golf Estates, where McIlroy is due to pick up his fifth Race to Dubai title on Sunday. “Erica and Rory love London and have decided this is where they see their future in a few years’ time,” the source said. “They will still have a base in Florida and, although there might be thoughts of scaling back on his schedule a bit by then, the private jet means he will still have the options of playing anywhere and everywhere.”
The stockbroker belt in Surrey is the overwhelming favourite to welcome the four-time major winner. Four years ago, McIlroy joined Queenwood, the ultra-exclusive club near Ottershaw where it costs £200,000 to become a member and which Ernie Els has praised for possessing “practice facilities so good they wouldn’t be out of place at a professional tour event”.
At that stage, McIlroy revealed that the couple were going to rent and were “not necessarily thinking of buying a place just yet”. But evidently, with a plot purchased and the designs already under way, the choice has been reached to make the leap back across the Atlantic.
The DP World Tour – with its headquarters at Wentworth, Surrey – will be delighted that its biggest draw will be nearby and it is fascinating to think that a few years ago McIlroy was actually on the brink quitting his home circuit to concentrate solely on the PGA Tour.
Yet in 2019 Erica talked him out of it – “she asked me ‘What are you trying to do’ and ‘What point are you trying to make?’” From that moment, McIlroy decided not only to commit to playing at least the minimum number of DP World Tour events required, but to try to win as many Order of Merit titles as possible.
“I’d say I went through a period in my career where I didn’t prioritise it [the Race To Dubai],” he said at the Earth Course on Tuesday. “It’s really nice to have my name on the Harry Vardon Trophy for the fifth time and just be one behind Seve [Ballesteros] and still three behind Monty.
“You’re talking about the greats of the European game, and to be up alongside them is really… well, if someone had told 18-year-old Rory when I was making my professional debut in 2007 that I would have won five Order of Merits up to this point, I wouldn’t have believed them.”
McIlroy was assured of the quintet last Sunday, after Adrian Meronk and Ryan Fox failed to finish in the top three in the Nedbank Challenge in Sun City he could not be caught, despite all the points on offer here at the DP World Tour Championship.
“In fairness, I probably would have liked to have done it another way,” he said, selflessly recognising that some of the excitement in this season-ender has been removed. “But I’ve played well when I’ve come back over to the European Tour this year and won two Rolex Series events [the Desert Classic and Scottish Open] and had some other really high finishes in tournaments that give a lot of points, including the second at the US Open.
“But even though I feel like I’ve had a good year, I don’t feel like I’ve had a great year, so it’s great I can still go ahead and achieve things like this.”
