Mark Runnacles/Getty ImagesRory McIlroy and Erica Stoll's relationship is getting serious!
The golfer and PGA employee made their first public appearance together Sunday at the Royal County Down—the site of the Irish Open. The two were last spotted together in Rochester, New York, in April. They were first linked when Irish tabloids said they spent New Year's Eve together on the Emerald Isle. "I am very happy in my love life," McIlroy told The Times of London Friday. "We haven't really been putting it out there. She is from America, which is why I like to spend time in Palm Beach."
Stoll appears to be a positive influence on her boyfriend.
"If everything off the golf course is good," the 26-year-old golfer said, "it allows you to be better on it as well." Though McIlroy called Stoll "someone new," he's actually known her since 2012 and said they are "good friends."
He added that Stoll "does not play golf"—professionally, at least.
"The past six or seven months have been really nice," he added. "That part of my life is going great." The same can't be said for his golf game, as McIlroy missed the cut Friday for the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open.
Regardless, the world No. 1 is much happier than he was after abruptly ending his engagement to Caroline Wozniacki last year. Speaking of his ex, the Danish tennis pro recently said she received another marriage proposal—albeit a less serious one.
"I had a fan go down on one knee with a ring and ask me to marry him," Wozniacki told the U.K.'s Yahoo! Sport last week. "That was in America. Unfortunately I had to turn him down as he hadn't asked my dad for permission!"