Rory McIlroy was born in Holywood, Northern Ireland where he attended Sullivan Upper School. He belongs to the Holywood Golf Club, where he began his first training under the guidance of Michael Bannon, a coach he has maintained to this day.

He has been engaged since 2011 to the Danish tennis player Caroline Wozniacki, already number one in the WTA rankings, forming one of the most famous young couples in international sport. On May 21, 2014, however, the two broke off their relationship shortly before the wedding. On April 22, 2017, he married Erica Stoll, a 29-year-old from Florida who works for the PGA, whom he met at the 2012 Ryder Cup, and to whom he was engaged on May 31, 2015.

In his career he won the 2012 and 2014 PGA Championship, the 2011 US Open and The 2014 Open Championship.

In May 2009 Rory McIlroy described the Ryder Cup as an exhibition. McIlroy said: "It's not a big goal for me. In my big plan it's not such a big event. Golf is an individual sport, you have individual goals, and my goals are to win tournaments for myself."

European team captain Colin Montgomerie responded by saying the Ryder Cup is not a show and never will be. It is a special and unique event. The following year, in 2010, McIlroy regretted what he said and said that the Ryder Cup is definitely not a show.