Golfing superstar Rory McIlroy’s Players Championship playoff rival, J.J. Spaun, has shed light on a conversation he had with the four-time major champion at TPC Sawgrass – where the PGA Tour star supposedly revealed plans to build a new UK home. After a weekend of scintillating golf, both the 35-year-old and American Spaun were deadlocked when the final round ended, forcing a rare playoff.
McIlroy would end up the victor after a hole 17 approach by Spaun found the water, but the pair evidently had plenty of time to chew the fat throughout the weekend and beyond. Appearing after his gut-wrenching loss, top-30 ranked Spaun – who has only won once on the PGA Tour back in 2022 at the Valero Texas Open – came clean about his conversations with his opponent. When the topic of vacationing in the UK was raised, McIlroy allegedly spilt the beans about a new property he’s building back home.
“He’s super cool. We were talking about the UK. I know he’s Northern Irish, but I asked him if he ever hangs out in London,” Spaun told the Fore Play podcast when asked about playing alongside McIlroy.
“Because my wife has got a really good friend that lives out there and loves going there so over the last couple of years, we go on this little vacation in December to the Cotswolds. Little quaint villages that are really old, and they have pubs from like the 1700s. It is just a really cool vibe to hang out during the holidays.
“I asked him about that, and he said, ‘Oh yeah, I’m building a house out there.’ He kept it really friendly and light, and then we chatted a lot until the back nine, and that was it!”. McIlroy’s representatives have been approached for comment.
Spaun was rewarded for coming second fiddle with £2m in prize money. His comments come just one month after McIlroy admitted his wife, Erica Stoll, is keen on the idea of spending more time in England.
“If it was up to her, she wouldn’t move to England straightaway, but she definitely wants to spend more time there,” McIlroy revealed, speaking on season three of Netflix’s Full Swing.
Whether such extended periods would be enjoyed in the home McIlroy is claimed to be building remains to be seen, but regardless, the Northern Irish icon has a property portfolio to be envious of. His primary £17m Florida mansion, which includes a six-car garage, tennis court, pool, and adjacent golf course, was built in 2002 and supposedly purchased by McIlroy in 2012. Additionally, McIlroy is reported to own a large mansion in La Quinta, California, which was added to his list of houses six years ago for a fee of £9.5m.
Both these US states have provided McIlroy with golfing joy of late. His last two PGA Tour victories, in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and the Players, have come in California and Florida, respectively. Apartments in New York and the UAE complete his host of homes, along with a 200-acre 19th-century estate in County Down, Northern Ireland – near his hometown of Holywood.
