LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Rory McIlroy has filed for divorce from his wife, Erica Stoll. Golfweek confirmed the news via online court records in Palm Beach County, Florida, as did McIlroy’s communications team.
In a statement to Golfweek, McIlroy’s team stressed Rory’s desire to ensure this difficult time is as respectful and amicable as possible and noted he will not be making any further comment. TMZ was first to report the news.
The 35-year-old Northern Irishman filed for a dissolution on Monday, May 13, a day after his 26th PGA Tour win at the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship and a day before he arrived on site at Valhalla Golf Club for the 2024 PGA Championship. McIlroy’s last major victory came 10 years ago here at Valhalla at the 2014 PGA Championship at Valhalla.
McIlroy and Stoll, a former PGA of America employee, became engaged in December 2015 and married in April 2017. The couple had a daughter, Poppy, in September 2020.
The 35-year-old won the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow Club on Sunday at 17 under by five shots to secure his 26th win on the PGA Tour after a blistering final-round performance. McIlroy shot a 6-under 66 and played Nos. 8-15 at 8 under with a pair of eagles.
For his efforts, McIlroy will take home the top prize of $3.6 million, while 54-hole leader Xander Schauffele will bank $2.16 million for finishing runner-up. Even Ben An in third place cleared seven figures with a $1.36 million payday.
With $20 million up for grabs in the signature event, check out how much money each PGA Tour player earned this week at the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship.
The win is the 26th of his PGA Tour career and second of the season.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. —The stars showed up at the PGA Tour’s sixth big-money, no-cut signature event of the season, where two top-five players in the world separated from the pack to set up a slugfest on Sunday.
In the end it was Rory McIlroy who donned the crown and took the throne as the King of the Queen City. The 35-year-old Northern Irishman entered the final round one shot back of Xander Schauffele but flipped the script around the turn to win the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship by a whopping five shots at 17 under after a 6-under 65 at Quail Hollow Club, where he’s now a four-time winner dating back to his maiden victory on Tour in 2010.
“I must say, I do go on Zillow quite a lot and look at some of the properties around here,” McIlroy joked. “I love coming back here, I love spending time here. It’s a place that I’m very comfortable at with Quail Hollow, the city of Charlotte in general and the people. For whatever reason, I get so much great support here.”
“I said it on the 18th green after I won there that all these people have sort of watched me grow up. I won here for the first time as a 20-year-old and now at 35, so they’ve sort of seen my progression throughout the years,” he continued. “I’ve sort of grown up in front of their eyes and I think that’s one of the reasons I get a lot of support here, too.”
Rory McIlroy acknowledges the gallery after winning the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow Club. (Photo: Jim Dedmon-USA TODAY Sports)
McIlroy won his last start at the 2024 Zurich Classic of New Orleans with his partner and good friend Shane Lowry and now has 26 PGA Tour wins to his name. The four-time major champion hasn’t missed a cut this season on Tour in nine starts and has eight finishes inside the top 25, including a trio of top 10s.
“I don’t know what’s more unbelievable, winning a PGA Tour event for the fourth time or getting my (26th win),” said McIlroy. “Whenever I sort of hit some of these milestones or do these things, I always think back to, for example, like 20-year-old me playing in this tournament for the first time. If I had known back then that this is the way everything was going to pan out, I probably wouldn’t have believed you.”
Schauffele, who finished solo second at 12 under after an even-par 71, hasn’t missed a cut in 12 PGA Tour starts this season and has now bagged 11 top-25 finishes, with eight inside the top 10, including a T-2 at the Players Championship. Ben An (66) continued his solid season with a third-place finish at 9 under, his fifth top-10 finish in 13 starts this year. Jason Day (70) and Sungjae Im (73) finished T-4 at 6 under.
“Mixed bag, for sure,” Schauffele said of his round. “I mean, (Rory) played unbelievable. Looked up at the board and I’m like, ‘Dang, he’s 6 under through 6 on the back nine.’ It’s something else. With that being said, yeah, I mean, overall I felt like I was doing pretty well for most of the day and then had that costly stretch and he capitalized like no other. Big reversal there.”
“I felt like I controlled the ball off the tee pretty well, some of those fairways are pretty daunting. Hit some incredible iron shots that I haven’t been able to do in quite some time, you know, right to left and left to right,” Schauffele explained. “Overall, I just need to clean up my short game, it’s always been a deciding factor whether I win a tournament or not, sort of a trigger stat for me, and it definitely hurt me today.”
McIlroy began the day with a birdie on the first hole to briefly tie Schauffele but fell back with a bad bogey on the par-3 4th hole after his tee shot was a club short and found the bunker.
On No. 6, Schauffele left a birdie putt, albeit a lengthy one, criminally short, which would foreshadow what was to come the rest of the round. From off the green, McIlroy nearly holed his chip and put the pressure on Schauffele to make his knee-knocker for par from eight feet. The putt skated by and the pair were once again tied.
On the par-5 7th, McIlroy missed fairway then barely held the green to leave a lengthy effort for birdie that he didn’t give enough respect nor pace. Schauffele, meanwhile, found the fairway and played the contour of the green to perfection to set up an eagle and bounce back from the bogey and take a two-shot lead after McIlroy three-jacked for par. Then the tide turned.
“You know, that was a big moment on 7. I three-putted, Xander made an eagle. Then Xander was inside me on 8, I knew I really needed to hole that putt just to try to stay or keep up with him,” McIlroy said of the situation. “Then he missed his, I birdied mine and then I just went on a run that for whatever reason I’m able to go on at this golf course.”
McIlroy made birdie on Nos. 8 and 9 from just outside 10 feet while Schauffele missed his birdie efforts from 10 and 31 feet, respectively, to make the turn to the back nine tied at 13 under. McIlroy curled in a 33-footer for eagle to one-up Schauffele’s birdie on No. 10 to take his first lead of the tournament and he never looked back. McIlroy extended his lead with a birdie-birdie-eagle run on Nos. 13-15 – after his eagle he threw his ball into the crowd – while Schauffele stumbled with bogeys on Nos. 12, 13 and 16 and a lone back-nine birdie on No. 15.
Standing on the 18th tee box, McIlroy had a seven-shot lead, which came in handy as his approach to the back pin on the par 4 skipped off the edge and found the creek that runs along the entirety of the hole. A double-bogey six put the cherry on top of a five-shot win.
With Wells Fargo in its final year of sponsorship, fans have been flocking to the merch tent to pick up their gear.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — This week marks the final year that Wells Fargo will sponsor the PGA Tour’s annual stop at Quail Hollow Club in the Queen City, and fans have been flocking to the merchandise tent to get the gear.
The 2024 Wells Fargo Championship merchandise tent has a little something for everyone. There are classic golf polos and quarter zips, plenty of hats to celebrate the tournament and Charlotte area, unique head covers and more. There are also a handful of t-shirts that pay homage to the Green Mile, Quail Hollow’s famous closing three-hole stretch.
Check out some of the best gear that’s for sale at the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow.
Matsuyama pulled out of the tournament before his first round tee time on Thursday.
Hideki Matsuyama withdrew from the PGA Tour’s 2024 Wells Fargo Championship just minutes before his weather-delayed first-round tee time on Thursday afternoon.
The 32-year-old from Japan cited a back injury as the reason for his withdrawal, which brings the signature event field down to 68 players after Ludvig Aberg withdrew earlier in the week.
Matsuyama hasn’t missed a cut in 10 starts on Tour this season and picked up his first win in two years back in February at the Genesis Invitational, the ninth victory of his career on Tour. In five previous Wells Fargo starts Matsuyama hadn’t missed the cut and bagged two top-25 finishes.
The injury and withdrawal have put Matsuyama’s status for next week’s 2024 PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky, in question.
Hideki Matsuyama WD prior to the start of his first round at the Wells Fargo Championship due to a back injury.
— PGA TOUR Communications (@PGATOURComms) May 9, 2024
“It has nothing to do with me being on the board,” Simpson said of his place on the PGA Tour Policy Board.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Outside of the four major championships, players have circled the PGA Tour’s eight signature events on the 2024 schedule seeing as the limited-field tournaments boast a $20 million purse and offer up even more FedEx Cup points than a normal event.
This week at Quail Hollow marks the Tour’s sixth of eight elevated stops, and the big-money event has brought another round of criticism for the four players who received sponsor exemptions to the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship: Matt Kuchar, Adam Scott, Webb Simpson and Gary Woodland. As members of the PGA Tour’s Policy Board, players like Scott and Simpson have been in the social media crosshairs, and the latter – a Quail Hollow member since 2011 and resident since 2014 – defended his selection during a press conference on Wednesday.
“Look, it’s a different day and age now than it was. I know these sponsor exemptions are probably the most coveted sponsor exemptions in the history of the Tour, but we’re not going to make everyone happy,” said Simpson. “As we’re looking at what criteria should these sponsor exemptions be, yadda yadda, we’re trying to balance making sponsors happy, giving them the opportunity to invite — you know, these tournament directors, who do they want to bring to their tournament, to their community, who do they think will add value to their tournament. These tournament directors are working round the clock for a year trying to make their tournament the best. We want to give them the opportunity to say, ‘Hey, you have a few spots, four spots in these Signature Events to be able to invite who you want to invite.’”
The Tour’s idea with the signature events was for players to earn their way into the amped-up tournaments and reap the rewards for their efforts. A member of the Tour’s Policy Board earning four spots into the six signature events so far brings the meritocracy into question, especially given his form this season. Across seven starts, Simpson has made six cuts but hasn’t cracked the top 25. He’s 152nd in the FedEx Cup standings and No. 227 in the world.
“I know that I’ve gotten, this is my fourth sponsor exemption, and Adam Scott’s received his fair share. There was controversy and guys were trying to link us being on the board, but it has nothing to do with me being on the board,” Simpson. The seven-time winner on Tour (not since 2020) argued his relationships with tournament directors and specifically his connection to the Charlotte area have made him a worthwhile selection.
Webb Simpson hits a tee shot on the first hole during the third round of the Valero Texas Open golf tournament. Mandatory Credit: Erik Williams-USA TODAY Sports
“So I certainly think the criticisms, I knew they were going to come depending on who got them, but I’m very comfortable knowing that we’ve given the sponsors the opportunity to pick, and the tournament directors,” he added. “I want to move on from it and realize that the Wells Fargo Championship is an amazing tournament.”
As a player in the field this week, Simpson has spent time with kids in the hospital and will spend time with the First Tee of Charlotte on the range at Quail Hollow on Wednesday afternoon.
“There’s things that I’m way more interested in and that get me excited than kind of worrying about what a certain person thinks about who should get sponsor exemptions,” Simpson said.
While Simpson doesn’t care about the perception of sponsor exemptions to signature events, the fans clearly do. The last thing the Tour needs right now is to alienate its supporters and water down its biggest events as it continues to be challenged each year by the threat of the guaranteed money offered by LIV Golf. The powers that be in Ponte Vedra Beach at Tour HQ are in a tough position as they try to make players, fans and sponsors happy.
“What the PGA Tour Policy Board has committed is that at the summer meeting, they’re going to review how things have progressed in terms of the metrics we looked at, you guys might remember me talking about this a year ago, retention rates, and the sort of aspirational nature of the PGA Tour,” said the Tour’s Chief Competitions Officer Tyler Dennis. “We’re gonna look at all of that and I’m sure sponsor exemptions will be one of those things and see what, if any, changes might be made for the 2025 season.”
In 2019, Wells Fargo signed a 5-year extension with the PGA Tour, but after next year’s playing, the popular event will need a new sponsor.
Several big names have won the Wells Fargo since 2003, including Tiger Woods (2007), Rory McIlroy (2010, 2015, 2021), Vijay Singh (2005), Jim Furyk (2006), Rickie Fowler (2012), Jason Day (2018) and Max Homa (2019, 2022).
McIlroy’s win in 2010 and Fowler’s win in 2012 were both player’s breakthrough wins on Tour.
Wyndham Clark, the tournament’s defending champion, went on to win the U.S. Open later that summer.
On Wednesday, with the help of the folks from Wells Fargo and the First Tee, a trio of HBCU players were featured once again at the Queen City’s crown jewel.
First Tee alumni Kai Dawson (North Carolina A&T State University), Ahmad Raoul (Winston‑Salem State University), and Nyla Sims (University of Maryland Eastern Shore) played the 2023 Wells Fargo Championship pro-am with none other than three-time Wells Fargo winner Rory McIlroy before helping host a First Tee clinic to support the Greater Charlotte chapter alongside PGA Tour players like Joseph Bramlett, Austin Eckroat and Trey Mullinax.
“Wells Fargo is committed to advancing opportunities for diverse communities inside and outside of the financial industry year-round,” said Kristy Fercho, Wells Fargo’s head of Diverse Segments, Representation and Inclusion. This year’s tournament offered exemptions to the APGA Tour’s Marcus Byrd and Quinn Riley. “In addition to their friends and families supporting these young men, they now have 240,000 new fans in Wells Fargo’s employees who will be cheering them on during the 2023 Wells Fargo Championship.”
“For me, I want to see more color in the game. Seeing all these kids come out to watch us at the clinic, it’s a big step in my dream to diversify the game,” said Raoul, who like Byrd and Riley has dreams of making it to the PGA Tour. “I want to see more kids play the game that look like me. Having this opportunity to show who I am to these kids, be a role model, to introduce myself to them and then have them go on a better path than what I grew up with, with more accessibility to technology, golf courses like this, that just a dream come true.”
“I have students back home in West Palm Beach, and me being away this week, my coach called me this morning, he’s like, ‘The kids miss you, they’re upset that you’re gone, but they’re all rooting for you,'” said Sims, who now teaches for the First Tee. “It kind of made me emotional because I really am making a significant impact. I’m getting to expose them to golf and doing the same thing that the First Tee did for me. It’s just been nothing short of amazing.”
For Dawson, the experience was nothing new. He’s been a role model for his 11-year-old sister, Zoe, who picked up golf at the age of 7 and now participates in her local First Tee chapter.
PGA Tour players and First Tee participants during a clinic ahead of the 2023 Wells Fargo Championship on Wednesday, May 03, 2023 in Charlotte, N.C. (Nell Redmond/AP Images for Wells Fargo)
What was new, however, was the opportunity to tee it up with not only a PGA Tour, but McIlroy, a four-time major champion and the world No. 3.
“It was an honor to play in the big leagues, on the PGA Tour,” added Dawson.
“This is probably one of the biggest motivators I’ve had in my career,” said Raoul. “We took a picture with Rory, and I told him, ‘I hope to see you one day out here,’ and he said, ‘I hope so to,’ and that set so deeply with me and motivated me to work even harder than I do now. I had other visions in mind of backup plans, but this is Plan A and something I’m gonna strive for.”
The grow the game phrase has become an overly-used cliché in golf, but it accurately describes what occurred on the Quail Hollow range. Wells Fargo prides itself as being the “Bank of Doing,” and its commitment to bring the game to those who may not otherwise be able to experience it – more than 100 First Tee participants were on hand on Wednesday – show the title is more than just a self-proclaimed tagline.
