The grind never stops for Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods — but apparently McIlroy’s wife, Erica Stoll, wanted it to… at least overnight.
“I’m drawn to him, yeah,” McIlroy, 36, said of Woods in 2022, according to the new book, Rory: The Heartache and Triumph of Golf’s Most Human Superstar. “He’s an intriguing character because you could spend two hours in his company and see four different sides to him. He’s thoughtful. He’s smart.”
The book, written by Alan Shipnuck, dives into McIlroy’s relationship with Woods and explains that — as Woods was recovering from various injuries and surgeries over his career — he would text McIlroy at all hours of the night.
“He can’t sleep so that’s all he does — he reads stuff and educates himself on everything,” McIlroy said in the book. “But he struggles to sleep, which I think is an effect of overtraining, so I tell him to calm down sometimes. He’d be texting me at four o’clock in the morning: ‘Up lifting. What are you doing?’”
According to the book, Stoll was not too happy about the late-night texts from 2017.
“Erica actually got pissed off with it,” McIlroy said in the book. “He was texting me in the middle of the night and I was like, ‘Tiger is in the gym.’”
McIlroy explained his connection with Woods in the book, saying that he has looked up to Woods over the years and even tried to emulate Woods’ game. The two co-founded the indoor golf league TGL together in 2022.
Despite their deep-rooted friendship, the two pro golfers couldn’t be further apart in their current golf games. While McIlroy is well on his way to defending his Masters title — holding a strong lead after the second round — Woods is dealing with his recent DUI arrest from March 27.
“What Rory has said and done is what leaders do,” Woods said in the book. “Rory is a true leader out here on Tour. The fact that he’s actually able to get the things he said out in the public eye, be so clear-minded with it and so eloquent with it, and to go out there and win golf tournaments on top of that? People have no idea how hard that is to do, to be able to separate those two things. Everyone respects him, and they respect him because of the person he is.”
McIlroy holds a historic six-stroke lead through two rounds of the 2026 Masters, and tees off for Round 3 on Saturday, April 11. The tournament runs until Sunday April 12.
