Rory McIlroy shares adorable moment with wife Erica, daughter Poppy after first win as father
On Sunday, Rory McIlroy finally cashed in.
After 18 months of swing changes, struggles, and oddly founded suppositions of newfound ‘perspective’, McIlroy won the Wells Fargo Championship.
The win was the 19th of his career and the first since shifting from longtime swing coach Michael Bannon to renowned guru Pete Cowen earlier this year. It was Cowen who helped steer McIlroy’s occasional sparring partner Brooks Koepka to consecutive victories at both the U.S. Open and PGA Championship just two years ago. Now, the 70-year-old Brit has steered another four-time major champion into the winner’s circle, just weeks before the PGA Championship returns to the site of McIlroy’s dominant win in 2012.
But swing thoughts and tweaks were far from the conversation on Sunday in Charlotte, largely because the win marked another first for Rory: his first victory since the birth of his daughter, Poppy. As McIlroy came down the stretch at Quail Hollow, CBS’s cameras focused not on McIlroy’s coach but on his wife, Erica Stoll, who celebrated her first Mother’s Day from outside the ropes, with baby in tow.
As McIlroy surged into the lead — working his way up the 18th fairway with a two-stroke advantage — he couldn’t help but appreciate the gravity of the moment.
“Yeah, really cool. For it to be Erica’s first Mother’s Day and for her to be here with Poppy, really, really cool,” he said afterward. “It was hard for me not to think of that coming down the last few holes and how cool that would be to see them at the back of the 18th green, but I had more pressing issues at the time, so it was pretty easy to get it out of my head. Really cool for them to be here and to be able to celebrate today.”
When Rory finished out his two-putt on the 18th to clinch the victory, Erica and Poppy made their way inside the ropes, where cameras captured the three share a heartwarming embrace.
