The Art of Being Rory McIlroy (2020)

Rethinking his approaches to golf and life

- Evin Priest

The red Chicago bricks trigger warm memories for Rory McIlroy. At his South Florida home, the wine cellar is adorned with Midwest-ern slabs that, until recently, covered the driveway. The bricks survived a renovation of the entrance to McIlroy’s Jupiter household when his wife, Erica Stoll, saw life left in their reddish-brown hue. “I’m a collector of wine, so we recycled the bricks and put them in the wine cellar,” McIlroy says. “Now, it looks like a really old-school, red-brick Chicago building.” Chicago is something of a happy place for the Northern Irishman. It was where McIlroy first met and befriended Stoll during the 2012 Ryder Cup at Medinah. She was one of the PGA of America staffers who helped organise that police escort for McIlroy from his hotel to the course for the singles match he nearly missed. McIlroy and Stoll started dating some years later. Chicago was also where McIlroy— while on vacation with Erica and celebrating his 30th birthday last year—began a journey of self-discovery that would lead him back to the world No. 1 ranking.

The nostalgia is obvious and one of the cellar’s biggest lures. Another is the respite this bunker offers from the outside world. From the pressure of being golf’s heir apparent to Tiger Woods. The weekly reminders of the six years since his last major-championship victory. Questions of why he doesn’t win more often. A relief from the chaos of the novel coronavirus and golf’s return from the suspension it forced.