Rory McIlroy teases five-year-old daughter Poppy's future golf career as he reveals why his second Masters win felt 'more complete'

Rory McIlroy has hinted that his daughter Poppy could already be following in his footsteps on the fairways. 

The Northern Irishman clinched his second green jacket at the Masters last month, becoming the first player since Tiger Woods in 2002 to triumph back-to-back at Augusta National. 

And the six-time major winner has now revealed that his five-year-old daughter Poppy could be poised to replicate his success on the LPGA Tour. 

McIlroy shared that Poppy, whom he shares with his wife Erica Stoll, is already joining him out on the golf course. However, he admitted that he wouldn’t force her into a career in professional golf.     

‘I would say that is up to her,’ McIlroy said, speaking at the Laureus World Sports Awards. ‘If that’s what she wants to do, I would be 100 percent behind her and support her. But if that’s not what she wants to do, I am happy to support her in whatever she wants. 

‘But I like that she’s taken a liking to golf and she likes to go out on the course with me and if that blossoms into something bigger, then that would be amazing. But if it doesn’t she’s always going to have golf in her life in some way and that’s great as well.’

The Northern Irishman clinched his second green jacket at the Masters last month

McIlroy runs across the course with Poppy during the Par Three Masters contest 

McIlroy finally slayed his demons at Augusta National to complete the career Grand Slam after 11 torturous years of trying last year. 

However, Poppy still managed to upstage her dad with her own golf skills. During the hugely popular par-three contest before last year’s tournament, the world No 2 let her take on a winding putt of around 25 feet on the ninth hole, which she sunk to wild cheers from Augusta’s patrons. 

Four days later and it was her famous father who the patrons were going wild for. And McIlroy slipped into his second green jacket this year, winning back-to-back Masters after a lengthy major drought.   

‘This year’s win compared to last year’s, it felt more real, more complete,’ McIlroy said at the Laureus World Sports Awards. 

‘I had my parents there, it wasn’t the first time doing it. When I won in 2025, I kept thinking to myself, “is this real life?”, the way it happened, and there was this outpouring of emotion. 

‘This year it was like validation. And having my parents there was absolutely incredible. It was my mum’s second time watching me win a major. The last time was 12 years ago in 2014 at the Open. So it was great to have them there and to have Erica there and Poppy and Erica’s parents were there, so to celebrate as a full family was a lot of fun.’ 

After opening up on his own on-course bonding with Poppy, McIlroy went on to hail the sport of golf for bridging the gap between generations.  

‘The great thing about golf is you can play it when you’re three years old and you can play when you are 83 years old,’ he said. ‘It’s amazing that grandparents can play with grandkids or I can go out and play with my daughter Poppy. The age range for golf is so wide that you can create these shared experiences. 

‘To go out and play a game of golf with someone, you don’t necessarily have to be at the same level like in some other sports. That’s really fun because you can go out there, play on the same golf course, play off different sets of tees and you can both still have an amazing time.’